Just My Way Of Repaying You
by Because Love is WAY Over-rated
Summary: AU-I'm the Princess brought up from the perfect world in his eyes. & I'm just the slump that saved her stumbling home from a party. It started as a competition, fighting to repay each other, but now the line is blurred and we can't see the finish. DxC
1. Unexpected Saviors

Just My Way of Repaying You

**Just My Way of Repaying You**

Disclaimer: I don't own the _Total Drama Island_ characters. Just my OC Matt along with a couple other OCs.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

My body was trembling, though whether it was from the cold night breeze or the fear that was slowly making its way through my system; I was unsure. I wasn't even supposed to be out here right now, but then again not all things work out according to plan when in an unfamiliar state; let alone one as large as New York. It still amazed me how large this place was and how many different looks it had to it. Right now I should have been staying in a luxury hotel with a view that over looked the park. But yet here I was, wandering the more rundown streets of New York City. Feeling like somebody was watching me; I spun around only to be greeted with the dim light of a one of the few lamps lining the streets.

"Get a grip Courtney. There's nobody there," I told myself, but even as I spoke my voice shook with the fear I was feeling.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," a male voice whispered into my ear from behind me. I let out a blood chilling scream before breaking out into a sprint. Sadly, my long legs didn't get me far before my arm was grabbed and I was spun around. This action left me dizzy as I stumbled forward into a hard chest. In front of me, I could hear a few different voices laughing at my current state which only peeked my fear.

"Let me go!" I yelled in my shaky voice once I had regained my straight vision. The hard chest belonged to a rather large man, and by large I mean muscular and tall. This guy had to have _at least _five inches on me and maybe thirty or so more pounds than me of pure muscle. The arms that held me were large and the chest they held me against was broad and, like I said earlier, hard.

"Hear that boys. Girly here wants me to let her go?" the one holding me mocked. Doing the only thing I could think to do, I let out another scream but this time, it was silenced when I knife was pressed firmly against my throat.

"Not another sound," the same man growled, his bright green eyes piercing into my own frightened dark brown ones. Just when I thought it was going to be over, I heard the distant sound of a car engine. It seemed that the men surrounding me heard it as well because they seemed to go into a panic. Before I could register what was going on, I was spun around and had an arm around me. When I went to move away from the man's grasp I felt the blade of the knife press against my lower back.

"Don't move," the same guy hissed as the car turned the corner and slowly came to a stop. Three figures stepped out of the car and I felt the blade press harder against my back.

"Did I not tell you dudes that the party would be awesome?!" one of them, a blonde guy, said. The one of the other two began to talk as well before the one that was talking finally noticed me and the few strangers.

"Uh, Duncan?" the tall African-American said, catching the attention of the third quiet man.

"What's going on Matt?" the one who I guessed was Duncan asked, walking forward.

"Nothing that concerns you Duncan, so just leave," the one who was holding me spoke. Duncan seemed to ignore Matt as he continued to stare at me. I stared back, my pleading eyes searching for help in his bright blue ones.

"Who's the girl?" he asked, taking yet another step forward with the other two men following behind him.

"She's nobody," Matt said, pressing the blade harder into my back until I felt it cut through some of my skin. A few tears leaked out of my eyes as I bit my bottom lip in an attempt to not scream.

"If she's nobody then let her go," the blonde one said, his dark blue eyes challenging Matt's bright green ones. The two began to argue and all the while they did, I felt Matt press the knife further into my back. I squeezed my eyes closed out of the pain while I began to taste blood in my mouth from biting down on my lip too hard.

"Let the girl go Matt. She obviously doesn't want to be with you and I can tell you're hurting her," Duncan finally spoke, his seemingly calm voice breaking through the arguing.

"What are you trying to say? That she'd rather be with you? Please, look at yourself Duncan. Anyone in their right mind would be terrified of you from one look," Matt said and it was then that I really did look at Duncan. He was wearing a long sleeve shirt that was black while the sleeves were an off white/light yellow color. In the middle of the chest, there was a circle that looked like it had the face of a skull in it. The round skull like face in the middle of the black shirt was the same color as the sleeves. His long shorts, which hung low on his thin waist, ended a few inches before his ankles and were a dark blueish green color. On his rather large feet, Duncan was wearing bright red and that same off-white/light yellow colored high top converse that pretty much covered what little skin was still showing from when his shorts ended. If the clothes didn't scare off someone, it was probably his face that did.

Now Duncan was not ugly. If I said he was, it would be a complete and total lie because he was actually very good looking in a sexy dangerous way. His mouth was either in a straight line or slight frown while it remained closed. A little beneath his lips there was a small goatee of black hair. As for his stunning bright blue eyes, they always seemed to have a look about them that showed Duncan was either bored or rather lazy. Though from the broadness in his shoulders and slight muscles I could see through his long sleeves, I knew that he probably wasn't the lazy type. There was a stud piercing on the left side of his nose that matched the one above in his unibrow. On his left ear there were two piercings while there was only one on his right ear and then around his neck he had a black studded dog collar. For hair, Duncan had a small amount of black that covered the majority of his head and then a bright green Mohawk in the middle of his head that was in a slop shape so that the tallest point was at the front of his head.

So Matt was right about Duncan being slightly scary looking, but at the moment, I would take anything that wasn't carving into my back with a knife that probably wasn't even all that clean. Taking a deep breath, I decided to try my luck with speaking.

"Help," I managed to make out before the knife was dug deeper into my back. I let out a hiss of pain while trying not to double over in pain. Luckily my quietly voiced plea hadn't fallen on deaf ears since both the blonde and the African-American tensed while Duncan continued to study either me or Matt; possibly both. I wasn't really all that much to look at if someone was to compare me to the other snobbish daughters of rich men. My brown hair was a mix of a light brown and dark brown while it framed my face ending at level with the beginning of my shoulders. My eyes were dark brown and in between the two oval shaped orbs, there was a small patch of freckles. My nose was small and slightly pointy while my lips were full like most of my families' were except they were slightly thinner. It seemed that my families' lips had been thinning out from their usual thickness for a while since my African-American father married an American woman producing me and my sister with soft light brown skin. As for my body, I really just thought of it as that of an average 18 year olds'. I had a thin waist, thin hips, and thin long legs. My chest wasn't as huge as most of the fake girls I had the displeasure of knowing, but I was fine with the amount of breast I had obtained over the years.

"Let her go Matt," the tall African-American one said, his eyes holding worry for me which was surprising since I didn't even know his name.

"What would you do if I didn't DJ? We both know you don't care for violence," Matt said, causing me to learn the man's name. Whenever someone said the name 'DJ' I thought of someone who was loud and probably rather full of himself, but the DJ standing before me was nothing like that. He was muscular yet kinda quiet and he did seem like the type who didn't like fighting and preferred just being in good company. He was wearing a darkish green shirt with an orange 'D' painted onto the chest. He was wearing grey shorts that ended just above his knees and flip flops that were brown. DJ's skin, much like my own, was light brown in color and looked soft to the touch. As for his face, I saw it as gentle, but I could see the slightly more threatening side to it. He has a small stubble of beard that spread across the bottom of his chin with a small portion of it that reached up to meet just before his bottom lip in the middle of his chin. On his head, there was a white cap-type-thing that covered the top of his brown hair. DJ was someone I could see as being an excellent older brother and caring person who still enjoyed a good time.

"If he doesn't do anything, I will," the blonde stepped in, glaring hard at the man holding me and his thugs behind him.

"Why should I be afraid of you Geoff? Will you throw left over beer bottles from all of your parties at me?" Matt mocked the blonde. Geoff did look the part of someone that loved to party what with the cowboy hat and all. He was wearing a long, pink, button up, collared, t-shirt that had all the buttons undone revealing his well built abs and chest. He was wearing blue shorts that ended at his knees and blue flip flops. There was some time of suffer necklace around his neck and he was wearing a grayish bracelet of some sort. The blonde hair that Geoff kept under his cowboy hat was long in the front so that it ended a little just past his ears, but was shorted in the back. He was a party in a person who looked like he knew how to have a good time all the time.

"Matt, shut up," Duncan said, drawing everyone's attention to himself. "You've been talking a lot so far, but haven't even bothered to ask the girl what she thinks of the situation," he then added and then everyone was quiet while they looked at me. It was as if they were waiting for me to speak my thoughts and I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity.

"I d-don't want t-to be here," I stuttered in between shivers and bit back sobs. Everyone remained quiet so I continued to talk. "I'm b-bleeding b-because he's d-digging a knife into m-my b-back and I'm s-scared," I finished. It probably wasn't best to tell Matt and his thugs that I was scared because that was what they wanted to hear. The words were more directed towards Duncan and his two friends anyway because I was hoping they would be able to help me.

"Now that you know what she thinks, you and your friends can just run along," Matt said while I continued to tremble in his grasp.

"We can't just leave her here Duncan. They'll kill her," DJ tried to whisper over to said man, but I heard it anyway and upon hearing those last three words, I let out a small sob. I had been trying not to think of it earlier, but now there was no escaping the 'right in my face' 'it would bite me if it were a snake' truth that if I stayed here with Matt; I would probably die but not before they did something horrible to me.

"What we do to her is of no concern to you. Leave," Matt ordered, but the three men didn't move.

"Let her go Matt," Duncan said, his tone of voice sounding rather bored which made me slightly angry. Here I was, possibly about to die, and he was _bored_! Oh the nerve that guy had!

"Let's just consider this for a moment. If I were to let her go, then she would just go wandering around some more before getting picked up by someone else and killed anyway. How about we just spare her some pain by letting her stay with me? Where else would she go anyway?" Matt asked and then I was cursed by a line of thoughts that consisted of the same questions he just asked.

"Let her go and I'll take her back with me," Duncan said, shocking everyone including me.

"See Duncan, here you are again thinking that she isn't frightened of you either," Matt said, recovering before I had.

"She's probably scared shitless of everything right now, but has the right mind to think that I'm the lesser of the two evils since I'm not the one holding a knife to her. So let her go and I'll take her with me back to my place," Duncan said.

"It doesn't matter what the girl thinks. So how about you just run along and go play with your spray paint," Matt said, glaring at Duncan who just returned the glare.

"I won't just leave her with them Duncan. They'll kill her," DJ whispered once again. I felt a bit safer knowing that he wouldn't just leave without me.

"I'm telling you one more time Matt. Let the girl go," Duncan said, slowly reaching behind himself which made me curious.

"If you shoot me you'll just go to jail and I doubt you'll like that. Now that you're 20 they can't send you to juvy anymore," Matt said and I took in a sharp breath. I'd never before known of anyone who had been to juvy (probably because of how tight my circle was thanks to my father), but even as I continued to watch Duncan, I still felt some trust towards him. Whether this trust was because of DJ and Geoff who were next to him, or that fact that Duncan had yet to pull a knife on me; I was unsure. Either way, if I could get out of Matt's clutches, I would be happy and very greatful.

"I'm not going to jail like you almost did last month, but if you'd like to go to jail for killing this girl, then by all means, go ahead and kill her. Just means that I don't have to deal with you," Duncan said and my eyes widened in both disbelief and fear.

_"He did not just offer me up to the wolves for dinner?!" _I thought while the tears continued to roll down my paling face. There was silence before I was _thrown _forward into the awaiting arms of Duncan. All of this took me by shock and I found myself coughing after colliding with the solid chest.

"You really don't know how to have any fun Duncan," Matt muttered before him and his thugs disappeared. There was silence while the three men stared at me before I let out a groan of pain and they all pretty much jumped.

"What was Matt trying to do, carve into her fucking back?" Duncan asked, more so to himself, while they stared at my bleeding back. I was soon handing over to DJ who held me still while Geoff and Duncan disappeared behind me.

"What's your name?" DJ asked while I felt cold hands on my lower back around my cut.

"Courtney," I told him, proud with myself that I hadn't stuttered while speaking.

"That's a nice name. Well I'm DJ, the blonde dude is Geoff, and the guy with the green Mohawk is Duncan," he said, his voice gentle while I felt the bottom of my shirt being ripped off. Normally I would have cared, but at the moment all that I cared about was that fact that I was alive.

"Dude that does not look good. It'll probably need stitches so I hope you have good medical coverage," Geoff muttered before I heard a grunt.

"Shut up you idiot. That's probably the last thing she wants to hear," Duncan snapped at his blonde friend while I felt fabric being pressed against my cut which caused me to let out a small whimper of pain.

"How are we going to get Courtney back to your place Duncan?" DJ asked while the cloth that was being held to my cut became more pressured.

"Why my place?" I heard Duncan ask from behind me.

"Well for one, you are the one that offered to take her in. And two, your place is closest," DJ said before the two started arguing about something I didn't bother to follow.

"Uh dudes, I think Courtney is in some serious pain. Duncan, your place is closer so we'll take her there and I'll carry her. So DJ, hand her over," Geoff said, taking control of the situation. I only let out a low groan while being passed from guy to guy because of the strain it put on my cut. By the time they had started carrying me towards Duncan place, my mind was foggy and I soon found myself drifting off into unconsciousness.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

So I probably shouldn't be posting this just because I'm already working on like six stories and I only have three chapters of this story done, but I really wanted to post this story. This first chapter was obviously told in Courtney's point of view and the next chapter will be told in Duncan's. By switching off between the two, you guys get to find out their separate opinions about everything that's going on and you get to read more since some of the content in the chapter will be a repeat of what's going on in the other person's POV.

Sorry if this chapter seemed a little off, it's kinda like a prologue for everything. Oh and the characters will probably end up being a little OC, but you'll just have to live with that.

Kattie


	2. Pain In The Ass

The party had been rather boring actually. There were no mosh-pits, screaming bands, or head banging music. So in translation that means that party was a total dud which led me to wondering why my two friends in the front seats were still talking about how 'awesome' the party was. It was like Geoff to drag DJ and me to all of his parties where DJ would have fun with Geoff while I just sat around and sipped from my beer (which wasn't nearly strong enough). Sometimes I would pick up a girl or two, but tonight had just been a bore.

_"As long as the night is over and I can go home and sleep everything will be fine," _I thought while leaning back in my seat and closing my eyes. My head was hurting again, but it seems that it had gotten worse. **A lot **worse. At this point, I wasn't sure if it was because of the drinking, loud annoying music, whine of girls when I turned them down, the flashing lights at parties, or just from the fact that I didn't get enough sleep and was too stressed that caused the headaches. For all I knew, the headaches could be a combination of the six and I was just screwing my life over more than it already was by continuing down this useless road. At this point though, I didn't care about where my life was going. That was something that I could worry about another time when my head was clear and I was actually on my own and had time to think. At the moment I wanted my headache to stop and knew that there was some Advil at my place that could help with said goal.

The car came to a halt on the sidewalk a short distant away from my small apartment. It was amazing that I even still had that place since I was such a bum. Since I turned 16, I'd been in and out of juvy twice and had just recently gotten rid of my parole officer, Hatchet. That guy had been a total bitch to deal with, but if I wanted to get on the good side of the law, I had to put up with him. I swear, he was almost worse than my mother. Always telling me what to do and trying to keep my place clean. It was sickening to say the least.

"Duncan, we're at your place," Geoff said, drawing me way from my thoughts. They got out of the car, followed by me and were talking when DJ called for me and I looked forward to see a group of guys and a girl who looked terrified.

"What's going on Matt?" I asked, recognizing the guy who was holding the girl as an idiot thug I had the displeasure of knowing. Matt was known to do stupid things for no reason at all, but more so just for kicks. He was scum that tried to get others to fear him by doing irrational things.

"Nothing that concerns you Duncan, so just leave," he said, glaring at me. I ignored his comment and continued studying the girl. Her eyes, that were a really dark brown (almost black), were widened with fear and slightly red from crying most likely with a small patch of freckles in between them. She had light brown skin that looked smooth and brown hair that framed her face ending at her shoulders. This girl was skinny, but with a pretty shapely body without coming off as some sort of slut. She obviously came from a family that was high on the social status which made me wonder just what the hell she was doing in this part of New York.

"Who's the girl?" I asked, taking another step forward with DJ and Geoff following closely behind me.

"She's nobody," Matt told me, obviously trying to give off as little information as possible. The girl he was holding looked to be in pain as Matt tensed and she bit into her lip until it began to slowly bleed.

"If she's nobody then let her go," Geoff said from behind me. He and Matt soon began to pointlessly argue about the girl while I just continued to study her. Whenever I got into a situation like this, I always studied the people I didn't know so that I wouldn't be as surprised if they made a sudden action. In this case, the girl was the one I didn't know and she had her eyes squeezed shut in the obvious pain that contorted her face.

"Let the girl go Matt. She obviously doesn't want to be with you and I can tell you're hurting her," I finally spoke up after I had grown tired of his and Geoff's fighting. There weren't many times to account for (so little that I could count them on one hand) when I ran into Matt holding someone hostage, but whenever I did, I would usually try to help them. It wasn't fun to be held hostage, and I knew that because my own father had once done it to get the chance to escape from the police. So whenever I saw someone in that type of situation, I usually threw my two cents in while trying to get them out of it since I knew that Matt would most likely either hurt them badly, or kill them before the night was over. Matt was just a dangerous type of person that was too out of control to even be safe for himself.

"What are you trying to say? That she'd rather be with you? Please, look at yourself Duncan. Anyone in their right mind would be terrified of you from one look," Matt said, his bright green eyes holding disgust in them which made me want to chuckle. Here he was, looking at me like I was garbage when he was the one that was probably going to rape this girl before killing her. We just stared at each other for a while, Matt and I, before a scared voice broke the silence.

"Help," the girl whimpered before letting out a hiss of pain.

"Let her go Matt," DJ ordered, breaking the silence that had gathered between everyone.

"What would you do if I didn't DJ? We both know you don't care for violence," Matt said, speaking the truth. DJ had never really been one for fighting which was why I'm still kinda amazed he's stuck by my side for so long after all the stupid and violent things I've done. But Matt didn't know that DJ could seriously get scary if he had to and I was willing to bet my favorite knife on that fact that DJ wasn't going to let this girl stay with Matt without putting up a fight.

"If he doesn't do anything, I will," Geoff threatened and I found that this threat had less meaning than DJ's did. DJ was a well built, tall, strong guy while Geoff was a skinny (but well toned) blonde who loved to party and say 'dude'. Geoff would still put up a pretty good fight, but I knew that if a fight were to erupt, Matt would probably win against him. I was really the only one out of us three that could hold my own and actually have a good chance of winning a fight. It would be shameful if I couldn't considering how many fights and how much shit I had been put through throughout my life so far. When God dealt me a hand of cards, he had obviously been trying to get me to lose since so far I had pretty much nothing but bad luck.

"Why should I be afraid of you Geoff? Will you throw left over beer bottles from all of your parties at me?" Matt mocked which made my anger bubble. All too often people made fun of Geoff saying that he was stupid, slow, and that his only purpose in life was to party. Surprisingly Geoff had actually been raised in a nice home with two older sisters and a mom since his father had died from lung cancer when he was only three. His sisters and mother made it their goal to make sure Geoff was well educated so that he would make it big one day and have the chance to live a good life. Being raised with so many females, Geoff had learned to respect them and to this day he could never intentionally do any wrong to a girl. Now he could say something stupid that might somehow offend a girl, but that's just because it's the way Geoff was. He would have been much brighter had his sisters and mom not died in a fire five years ago. After they died, he pretty much gave up on trying to be smart because everything that even hinted at education reminded him of them. So Geoff just started partying while having a part time job to pay for things and dropped out of high school when he was junior, two years after the death of the rest of his family.

"Matt, shut up," I said, fed up with him insulting my friends. "You've been talking a lot so far, but haven't even bothered to ask the girl what she things of the situation," I then added before everyone fell silent. We were all looking at the girl and it seemed she picked up on the hint since she soon began to talk.

"I d-don't want t-to be here." She was stuttering, but I could still pick up the soft tone of her voice. "I'm b-bleeding b-because he's d-digging a knife into m-my b-back and I'm s-scared," she then finished and I understood now why Matt had his arm wrapped around her waist instead of just holding the knife to her throat. I felt slight pity for the girl because she had obviously been oblivious to this part of the world until tonight, but it was best that she knew the truth. My only hope now was that she didn't die tonight because it would be a shame for her to die so young since she didn't look must older than me. In fact, she was probably a year or two younger than me which just led me to wonder once again what the hell she was doing out here all alone.

"Now that you know w hat she thinks, you and your friends can just run along," Matt said while the girl trembled in his grasp.

"We can't just leave her here Duncan. They'll kill her," DJ whispered to me, but his voice was loud and I could tell the girl had heard because she let out a small sob.

"What we do to her is of no concern to you. Leave," Matt tried to order us, but we didn't move.

"Let her go Matt," I said again. That seemed to be the most used phrase tonight, but that's because there were three of us saying it over and over again. Since we had been saying it all night, my tone turned out sounding rather bored which I could tell didn't please the girl since she shot me a quick glare.

"Let's just consider this for a moment. If I were to let her go, then she would just go wandering around some more before getting picked up by someone else and killed anyway. How about we just spare her some pain by letting her stay with me? Where else would she go anyway?" Matt asked and before I even really thought the words, I was speaking them.

"Let her go and I'll take her back with me," I said and it shocked everyone… including myself. Where the hell these words were coming from, I had no idea, but I wasn't going to back down and let Matt walk away with an innocent girl (let alone another notch in his ego).

"See Duncan, here you are again thinking that she isn't frightened of you either," Matt replied after recovering from the brief shock my words had left him in.

"She's probably scared shitless of everything right now, but has the right mind to think that I'm the lesser of the two evils since I'm not the one holding a knife to her. So let her go and I'll take her with me back to my place," I said.

"I won't just leave her with them Duncan. They'll kill her," DJ whispered once again. I felt a bit safer knowing that he wouldn't just leave without me.

"I'm telling you one more time Matt. Let the girl go," I said before slowly reaching behind me to grab the knife that was in my back pocket. I always had this knife on me because trouble seemed to follow me around and I would be damned if I was unprepared for a fight.

"If you shoot me you'll just go to jail and I doubt you'll like that. Now t hat you're 19 they can't send you to juvy anymore," Matt said and the girl took in a sharp breath. Hopefully she was smart enough to ignore my mentioned police record and was still trying to get away from Matt.

"I'm not going to jail like you almost did last month, but if you'd like to go to jail for killing this girl, then by all means, go ahead and kill her. Just means that I don't have to deal with you," I said and the girls widened with fear in them. It was pretty obvious that that was the last thing she expected me to say but then again, I was just full of surprises. There was silence before the girl was thrown forward and I just barely reached out in time to catch her.

"You really don't know how to have any fun Duncan," Matt said before he and his idiot thugs left. We were all silent before the girl let out a groan and we jumped to action.

"What was Matt trying to do, carve into her fucking back?" I swore, though the question was something that I just asked aloud and wasn't really expecting an answer for. I handed the girl over to DJ who held her while me and Geoff inspected the cut on her back. It was pretty deep and the length of Matt's knife which would explain why it was bleeding so damn much.

"What's your name?" DJ asked her while I placed my hands on her lower back next to her cut. Geoff pulled out his cell phone so that we could have a bit more light while I held the shirt out of the way. I could tell my hands were cold when I touched the girl since she soon gained goose bumps on her lower back.

"Courtney," I heard the girl say. The name suited her, but that didn't much matter at the time. DJ said something in reply, but I ignored his voice while I worked on ripping off the bottom of Courtney's shirt so that it wouldn't get in the way.

"Dude that does not look good. It'll probably need stitches so I hope you have good medical coverage," Geoff muttered after letting out a low whistle. I elbowed him in the ribs to shut him up and he let out a grunt.

"Shut up you idiot. That's probably the last thing she wants to hear," I snapped at Geoff before using the piece of torn off shirt as a way to lessen the bleeding when I held it against the cut earning a small whimper of, most likely, pain from Courtney.

"How are we going to get Courtney back to your place Duncan?" DJ asked while I pushed down harder on the cut with the cloth since there was still some blood leaking out.

"Why my place?" I asked, raising the left side of my unibrow at him.

"Well for one, you are the one that offered to take her in. And two, your place is the closest," DJ said before I began to argue with him about reasons the girls shouldn't be taken back to my place. These reasons included things like 'my place is a mess', 'it's not safe', 'Matt could come back looking for her at my place', and that 'she'll freak out when she wakes up there'.

"Uh dudes, I think Courtney is in some serous pain. Duncan, your place is closer so we'll take her there and I'll carry her. So DJ, hand her over," Geoff interrupted her fighting. I just sighed before DJ handed the girl over to Geoff and Courtney let out a low groan. We started heading towards my place and just before we reached it, she passed out in Geoff's arms which made said blonde go into a panic.

"Dudes! She passed out! What do I do?!" he yelled while running into my rather small apartment. It was small simply because I couldn't afford anything larger, but since I was the only one living in it, I didn't mind. It had one bathroom with a shower, sink, and all that other stuff in it. One bedroom, another spare room which I had filled with pretty much a bunch of junk and some weights, a small kitchen that I had a stove/oven, fridge, microwave, and some shelves in it, and then some room for a living room that had a couch, one chair, and a TV. So it was small, but had everything I needed to survive so I didn't mind. And my part time job at Starbucks (it was really the only place that hired me) helped pay for the rent and was pretty close by.

"Just carry her into the bathroom and we'll clean her up there," I said while heading for the kitchen. Geoff and DJ had been over at my place enough times to know where everything was so they heading for the bathroom while I got a towel and other things that might help with cleaning up Courtney. Things would probably get rather awkward soon since I was betting there might be a chance that we had to remove her shirt to clean the cut fully or to get her into some better clothes. When I got to my bathroom, I found Courtney slumped over on the toilet while Geoff held her still with her shirt hitched up and DJ working on the cut.

"We need to get her to a doctor Duncan. This cut isn't going to heal well if we don't and it could get an infection because lord knows what was on Matt's knife," DJ said while trying to clean out of the cut with some water and a Q tip. Courtney was still bleeding pretty heavily and it was beginning to form a small puddle on the white tile floor of my bathroom.

_"Good thing I bought that Swifer mop and vacuum," _I thought before squatting down next to DJ so that I could get a better look at the cut.

"Well we can't take her now while she's unconscious because the doctors would probably think we hurt her and would then call the police. All we can do is clean it up the best we can and then wait for her to wake up," I said, placing the dark towel on the cut so it would soak up the blood (I didn't like the towel anyway) once DJ was done cleaning it the best he could.

"We need something to wrap it in," Geoff said when I pulled the towel away from Courtney's lower back.

"I think I have some gauze in a box that we could use. If it starts to bleed again, use the towel," I told DJ before leaving the bathroom, which had become much too crowded with four people in it (even if one of them was unconscious), and headed for the extra room that had a bunch of crap in it. Luckily before I moved here, my stupid parole officer, Steven (who was only like three years older than me), had helped me back everything into boxes and then labeled them. This made it easy for me to find the one marked 'medical' and then find the gauze along with some alcohol disinfectant stuff that I knew would sting like shit.

_"Good thing she's out cold," _I thought while grabbing that along with the gauze.

"Alright DJ, hold her down. Geoff, get ready with the towel in case it starts to bleed again. I don't know if she'll wake up, but lets hope she doesn't," I warned them before unscrewing the cap of the disinfectant stuff and pretty much drowning her cut in it. We were all tense while I did this, just in case Courtney did suddenly wake up screaming, but she didn't. The cut did start to bleed again, so Geoff cleaned it up with the towel before I wrapped her side up in gauze.

"We can't just leave her in these clothes Duncan," DJ said when I turned to leave the bathroom and head back towards my own room so I could attempt to get a decent night sleep.

"Why not? I see nothing wrong with them," I muttered before turning around and seeing the blood stains on the shirt and pants. _"Great."_

"Fine, but just know that she'll be totally pissed off when she wakes up. No girl wants to go through that shit with Matt, wake up in a weird place, and then realize that she's been changed out of her other clothes which means that some guys she doesn't know saw her half naked. So you guys go right ahead, I'm just gonna go get some sleep," I told them before trying to leave once again.

"Where do you expect us to keep her for the night if you're hogging up the only bed? Let me tell you that Courtney will be even more pissed if she wakes up next to you in different clothes," DJ pointed out which earned him a low growl from me. I'd known this chick for not even an hour and she was already screwing up my life…what a pain in the ass.

_"Lord knows what will happen when she actually does wake up," _my conscious reminded me and I let out a groan.

"Fine! She can sleep in my room, but I get the couch," I said before heading towards my room so I could at least change. Yep, this girl was going to be a pain in the ass when she finally did wake up.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**


	3. Panic?

The first thought that came to mind when I woke up that morning was that I had a brunch planed with my father and that I had to get up so that I could take a shower. By the time I had actually opened my eyes and saw the dark colored ceiling, I knew that something was wrong because the ceiling at the hotel I was staying at was colored a soft peach. Hurriedly sitting up so that I could inspect the mysterious room I was in, I regretted the movement when pain shot up through my back. It was when the pain had subsided slightly that I remembered what had happened last night.

_"So where the hell am I now?" _I thought, slowly sitting up. All of my movements had to be slow since if I moved too quickly it would cause me pain. When I was finally standing next to the bed, I looked down to find out that I was wearing a long black t-shirt and some dark grey sweats.

_"I can't believe those perverts took me out of my clothes?!" _I thought, rather angry that I only knew their names, but yet they had seen me almost naked. Slowly I made my way towards the nearest door and opened it to find a bathroom. Though I did in fact have to go to the bathroom, I wasn't going to touch anything until I knew just where the hell I was. Leaving the bathroom, I headed towards the only other door and along the way found a metal baseball bat.

"If only I could have had this kind of luck last night," I mumbled to myself before picking up the baseball bat and opening the second door. Turns out the second door led to a hallway and as I inspected said hallway, I heard voices coming from a room further down it. Gripping the bat tighter, I slowly tip toed down the hallway while heading closer towards the voices.

When I got to the end of the hallway, I saw three people sitting in front of a TV with the lights off. Because the lights were off, I could only make out the silhouettes of each of the people and they all appeared to be guys which didn't make me feel any better.

"Go check on the girl DJ," one of them said which caused me to freeze.

"Are you concerned about her Duncan?" another one of them asked in a mocking tone. Right now I could only remember hazy faces, but the names being mentioned sounded familiar. Even though the names sounded familiar, that didn't mean they weren't the names of the people that had kidnapped me and given me the cut on my back.

"No, I just don't want her bleeding to death on my bed. It would ruin my sheets," the guys that had spoken first clarified which made me gasp. It seems that even though they had been watching TV, they heard my gasp and all turned around to look at me.

"I didn't know you bought a bat," the third voice that hadn't spoke before said.

"I didn't buy it, I won it in a bar fight," the first one to talk, who I'm guessing was Duncan, told them and I looked at the bat once again.

"Calm down Courtney. We're not going to hurt you," the second voice said as I'm guessing it was him who stood up and held their hands up to show they meant no harm.

"Where am I?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly followed by my body shaking as well.

"Don't tell me she doesn't remember. Jesus Christ I don't have time for this," the first speaker, Duncan, declared before quickly walking over to me. Out of panic, I swung the bat and was surprised when he grunted before doubling over on the ground holding his stomach. Turns out I had hit him in the stomach and he didn't take that so well since once he could properly breathe again, he lunged at me. I let out a scream before swinging the bat again and this time it hit in the chest. When Duncan fell, I hit him once again on the back of his legs so that he wouldn't be able to lung at me again.

I may seem weak, but I had taken classes on how to defend myself from kidnappers so I knew where to hit to insure that they were down. When I was pulling my foot back so that I could kick my attacker, Duncan jumped up once again and tackled me to the ground. Now I found myself lying beneath him while squirming around with my arms held above my head and my legs held down by his own while he glared down at me.

"DJ get over here and take her before I end up hurting her!" Duncan yelled over his shoulder while I continued to move around underneath him. It seemed that at one point my leg had shifted a little close to in between Duncan's slightly spread legs since he shot me a look.

"Don't you dare," he hissed, glaring down at me. My movements stilled as I prepared myself for my sudden attack, calculating whether or not I'd be able to hit my target: in between his legs.

"Let me go," I ordered him while slowly moving my leg upward. Duncan took in a sharp breath as my leg slowly inched up the inside of his thigh. When I lowered my raised leg, he seemed to know that the hit was coming because in a turn of events he flipped me over so that I was now straddling him while he lay beneath me. In between the transition I only had time to let out a small squeak before I found another pair of arm wrapped around my waist and pulling me off of Duncan. While I was kicking around in the other person's grasp, someone else turned on the lights and I was finally able to see again.

"It's okay Courtney. Calm down," the person holding me told me and I looked around to see if I could spot out something that looked familiar now that I could see things in a better light. Everything still looked unfamiliar, but at least I was recognizing some faces though that didn't mean they weren't the bad guys.

"Who are you?" I asked while trying to calm down my breathing. Once before in my life I had had a panic attack so I knew the symptoms of it and right now I could feel a panic attack coming along. If I didn't calm my breathing, I would have to get to a hospital in less than twenty minutes or I would probably pass out and maybe die from not being able to breathe. It wasn't a pretty thing and if these guys were the bad ones, they probably wouldn't care enough to get me to a hospital.

"Dude I'm Geoff, the dude holding you is DJ, and the guy you almost kneed in the balls is Duncan. We saved you from Matt last night, but you passed out so we kept you here for the night," the blonde one that had spoken once before explained.

"We should've left the stupid bitch with Matt," the one who turned out to be Duncan (same guy I thought was Duncan) muttered before angrily grabbing the bat off of the ground and leaving the room.

"Where am I? What time is it? How long have I been out?" I asked, still trying to regain my normal breathing.

"We're all at Duncan's apartment, it's almost three in the morning and you've been out for almost five hours," the one that was holding me, DJ, said as he slowly let go of me. The moment I was free of his grasp, I pretty much collapsed to the ground holding my neck while my back began to ache. Before I hadn't noticed how much my back hurt, but now that I was taking in things, the pain started up again and it didn't help my state of panic at all.

"I need water," I told them in between gasps as Duncan returned to the room with a cross look on his face. I probably would have laughed at his expression had it not been for the fact that I was in the middle of having a panic attack. The blonde one, Geoff I think was his name, disappeared from site before returning with a glass of water that I gladly took and chugged down in one sitting. By the time my breathing had returned to normal all three of the guys were staring at me and I felt a blush creep over my face and neck.

"Sorry, I get panic attacks sometimes," I admitted meekly, afraid to look up incase I blushed even harder in embarrassment.

"Are you alright?" DJ asked. He was still crouched down next to me holding his hands out warily probably incase I suddenly collapsed which I had no intentions of doing. A small smile worked its way onto my slightly dry lips as I nodded mutely at them.

"Really I'm fine; it's just kinda weird waking up in someone's house that I know nothing of."

"Trust me Princess, if I had my way you wouldn't even be here right now but instead dumped somewhere at a hospital or possibly still with Matt," Duncan interrupted and I visibly flinched which didn't go unnoticed by the other two guys who had been much more friendly to me.

"Shut up Duncan," Geoff ordered him, though the command in his tone of voice was lacking greatly. It seemed that Duncan was a force not to be reckoned with and he obviously was the alpha of this group since DJ and Geoff did pretty much everything he told them to. Personally I thought it wasn't fair that Duncan could just walk all over them like he does, but DJ and Geoff could fight back, so I guess I can't really feel all that bad.

"I didn't mean to be any trouble, but if I've really been that big of a hassle I could pay you back. I know my father would be pleased to pay you in thanks for saving my life," I assured Duncan before my eyes widened and I shot up from the ground so that I was now standing.

"Oh gosh! My father! He's probably worried sick! I have to get to him and tell him I'm okay," I said in a slur of rushed words that were sloppily strewn together in a sentence full of incoherent words.

"Calm down Courtney. We'll call your father after we get you to a hospital," DJ assured me and then something else came to my attention that made me want to slap all three men (especially Duncan just because he's been rude to me) over the head.

"Why aren't we at the hospital now? Do you have any idea how to treat the wound I have? For all you know it could be infected and I'll end up dying slowly!" I exclaimed before fear began to inch its way into my mind and I found myself lifting up some of my shirt to get a better look at my somewhat dressed wound.

"Well you kinda passed out and we weren't sure what to do with you," Geoff spoke weakly, shrinking away from me since I'm sure I was radiating off some very unpleasant vibes at the moment.

"Not only that but I didn't want to have to pay for any medical bills since I didn't know if you could afford the treatment or not," Duncan added in. He seemed rather bored as he picked at a loose thread on the end of his shirt.

"I can afford it. So if you don't mind, I'd like to be taken to the hospital," I assured the three. After I had spoken though, they all fell silent while staring at each other. "Are you guys just going to stand there all day?" I almost snapped, but managed to keep my attitude under control.

"DJ you take her to the hospital," Geoff randomly threw in after another short period of awkward silence.

"No, you take her to the hospital Geoff. I have to get home so I can get some sleep for work," DJ defended himself.

"I can't take her; I have to get back to my girl. I wouldn't be surprised if she's already called the cops out of worry," Geoff too defended himself. There was silence before both of them turned to Duncan. While it seemed that he caught on to what they were implying through their stares, I was left confused and wondering what was going on.

"Hell no. I am not taking princess to the hospital because all she'll do is complain the whole time," Duncan snapped, shooting a rather dirty look in my direction which only made me raise a confused eyebrow.

"Come on Duncan, you don't have to work tomorrow since its Saturday and both me and Geoff have to get back. We'll pay you back somehow, but right now we have to leave," DJ tried to talk his friend into taking me to the hospital.

"Who's to say I want Duncan taking me to the hospital? For all I know he'll just dump me on some street without even telling me to have a nice life," I threw in my two cents and all three guys turned to look at me.

"It'd decided then, I'm not taking Princess to the hospital because she hates my guts," Duncan declared and once again I told them of my thoughts.

"I never said that I hated your guts Duncan because I don't hate them, I just don't trust you since you've given me no reason to." When those words were spoken, said delinquent looked over at me with slightly narrowed eyes.

"I should've known that you'd just judge me like everybody else. You think that because of my record and the way I look that I can't be trusted," Duncan pretty much spat venom at me.

"I never said that Duncan, you've simply not given me a reason to trust you," I clarified and silence followed shortly behind my words.

"Geoff, you and DJ go home. I'll take Princess to the hospital and give you a call later," Duncan said before grabbing my hand and dragging me out of his apartment. I wasn't going to complain just yet, because one: Duncan had said that all I do was complain and I wanted to prove him wrong and two: I didn't really care right now who was taking me to the hospital as long as someone was.

"Thank you Duncan," I told him when the silence in his car started to get to my head.

"Don't think I'm doing this to please you. I just wanted to get away from those two," he muttered before turning on the heat which I was greatful for since I had been freezing.

"All the same, thank you."

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

Wow… has it really been 11 days? I didn't even realize it had been that long since I last updated and I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. The next update will hopefully be in a week or two but that all really depends on how much homework I'm given by my teachers. As of now I don't have any huge projects, but math is starting to become harder so most of the work I get will probably be from that (and science too).

All the same, please review! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the next chapter will be from Duncan's POV.

Kattie


	4. Thanks

I had been right about my assumptions; this girl was a total pain in the ass.

The first thing she did when she woke up was attack me with a freakin' metal baseball bat! Who the hell does that?! But I still beat her since she's now glaring up from underneath me while I held her down.

"DJ get over here and take her before I end up hurting her!" I ordered DJ while also threatening the girl that if she did the wrong thing I would hurt her even though I probably would've. Been to juvy or not, it's still wrong to hit a girl. Said girl continued to squirm underneath me and soon I felt something bump against the inside of my thigh and glared down at the girl who had an evil smirk forming on her lips.

Reading her mind, I hissed down at her. "Don't you dare." She didn't seem to care since she just inched her leg up higher, all the while sliding it against the inside of my thigh which I will admit was making my legs tense up as I took in a sharp breath. When I felt the touch of her leg vanish I knew that she would soon be delivering the blow that would have me on my knees so, in a quick turn of events that I'm not sure how I managed to pull off, I flipped us around so that she was on top of me and I was underneath her. Now she was the one straddling me, but she was resting most of her weight on my lower stomach and almost right over my crotch since she was still in shock… not that I minded.

Just as soon as we were in this position, we were separated again by Geoff and DJ pulling her off me. The moment I was free I was sitting up and glaring at the girl while she began to ask all these questions about where she was and who we were. I took the bat from off the ground before shooting her a glare and declaring that we should have left her with Matt. The girl kept asking questions I left the living room and headed back towards my room to return the baseball bat I had won in the bar fight some idiot started only a couple of weeks ago. Really all of them were too wasted to even stand a chance, but any brawl is still a brawl and it made do for getting off some steam which is something I had needed. As of lately Matt has been causing more and more trouble around my area and, with my oh so _perfect_ police record, things haven't been looking all that well for me. It was only about a day or two before the bar fight that my old parole officer dropped by to check up on what I had been up to.

_Now isn't the time to get wrapped up in problems on the streets, just worry about the one in the living room. _I reminded myself before taking in a deep breath and leaving my room once again. There was a cross look on my face when I returned to my living room but it was quickly replaced with a confused one when I found the girl kneeling on the ground gasping while staring at the ground with wide watering eyes. I watched as Geoff handed the girl a glass of water which she took before downing the thing down and soon regaining her breathing. Then she started apologizing for her panic attacks that she gets sometimes which made me roll my eyes. Could this girl seriously be any more of a hassle?

"Really I'm fine; it's just kinda weird waking up in someone's house that I know nothing of," she said and I decided to finally speak up with harsh words as usual.

"Trust me Princess, if I had my way you wouldn't even be here right now but instead dumped somewhere at a hospital or possibly still with Matt," I said and felt kinda bad for my words since she flinched but just ignored the nagging at the back of my head as Geoff told me to shut up. I turned my anger towards him in the form of a glare and was about to challenge him when the girl interrupted us.

"I didn't mean to be any trouble, but if I've really been that big of a hassle I could pay you back. I know my father would be pleased to pay you in thanks for saving my life." Upon hearing those words my eyes widened slightly as I began thinking of the money I could be earning for saving this chick. Now she wasn't looking all that bad; or at least she _wasn't _until she started freaking out about how her father must be worried sick about her. Someone kill me now please.

"Why aren't we at the hospital now? Do you have any idea how to treat the wound I have? For all you know it could be infected and I'll end up dying slowly!" she exclaimed in an outrage as I just shook my head and tried to resist the urge to rub my temples in frustration. Geoff tried to explain to Princess that she had passed out so we didn't know what to do with her but I got tired of his rambling and just cut to the real reason I didn't take her to the hospital in the first place,

"Not only that but I didn't want to have to pay for any medical bills since I didn't know if you could afford the treatment or not." Well that was part of the truth, the other part being that I didn't want my parole officer finding out that I brought some girl to the hospital since he would probably jump to the thought that I'm the reason she's even there in the first place. Once a criminal always a criminal… or some shit like that he used to tell me.

"I can afford it. So if you don't mind, I'd like to be taken to the hospital," she spoke up and then we all stayed silent until she broke the silence once again. Can't this girl just stay quiet for once? "Are you guys just going to stand there all day?" I could tell she was irritated by our lack of response by the way she bit out her words and it amused me. Then, the fighting began as we all tried to get the other to take her to the hospital since it was obvious none of us wanted to be going to the hospital. I tuned out DJ's and Geoff's bickering until all fell silent and I looked up to see them both looking at me. Reading their minds, I spoke,

"Hell no. I am not taking Princess to the hospital because all she'll do is complain the whole time." There was a snap to my words that just dared them to challenge me and it seemed they were feeling rather daring today since they spoke up again.

"Come on Duncan, you don't have to work tomorrow since its Saturday and both me and Geoff have to get back. We'll pay you back somehow, but right now we have to leave," DJ pointed out and then the girl started asking if anyone cared that maybe she didn't want _me _taking _her _to the hospital.

"It's decided then, I'm not taking Princess to the hospital because she hates my guts," I declared and then she told me that she didn't really hate me but rather didn't trust me which just hit home as I took a dangerous step forward and glared at her.

"I should've known that you'd judge me like everybody else. You think that because of my record and the way I look that I can't be trusted," I hissed, fists clenched at my side as I tried to control my anger.

"I never said that Duncan, you've simply not given me a reason to trust you," she said and then it was decided that I was going to prove to her that she could trust me. I'm not sure what brought upon this decision, but I felt compelled to let her know that just because I had a sketchy background didn't mean that I couldn't be trusted.

"Geoff, you and DJ go home. I'll take Princess to the hospital and give you a call later," I ordered before grabbing the girl's hand and dragging her towards my car. My jaw was locked in concentration and determination as I started up the car and began to think of the quickest way to get to the hospital from my place.

"Thank you Duncan," she said, breaking the silence as she smiled faintly over at me from her seat in the passenger side.

"Don't think I'm doing this to please you. I just wanted to get away from those two," I muttered before switching on the heat and pulling out onto the street so I could head towards the hospital.

"All the same, thank you," Princess said before we fell into silence, the only noise coming from the engine as I took her towards the hospital.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

It was boring beyond belief to be sitting in the waiting room after Princess had been rushed off to clean and treat her wound. The only good news so far was that it wasn't super deep and could easily be cleaned and stitched up. Now it was my job to call up her dad and tell her that she was in fact in the hospital. That was the big problem. I've never been good with dads, probably because mine was such an ass and I've grown to naturally hate all father like figures who try to run something, so talking on the phone with the father of the girl who's in the hospital isn't going to be fun. To say the least, it wasn't exactly what I was looking forward to doing on a Friday morning. I looked down at the piece of paper in my hand once again and studied the seven numbers, pacing back and forth while debating whether I should call or just wait for her to get done and then make her call.

_Call my dad while I'm there please. I just want him to stop worrying. _She had said and now those words kept echoing through my head until I finally found myself dialing the digits.

"Hello? Courtney?" an old man answered, voice laced with worry as I could sense the panic in his words.

"Uh no, but I'm here with Courtney," I told him, nervously rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand.

"Is she alright? Where are you?" he asked, cutting right to the chase as I could sense the urgency in his words.

"We're in the hospital right now and she's going to be alright. She just got into some trouble last night and just woke up so I took her to the hospital," I told the man, fibbing some of the truth which made the nagging in the back of my head come back.

"Oh thank God. I was so worried. Thank you young man for taking care of my daughter, I'll give you anything you need in thanks."

"N-no, that really isn't necessary. I'll bring Courtney to you when she's done getting cleaned up," I quickly said, breaking off the man from offering me any more things. I may be a criminal and ex-cell mate, but that doesn't mean I thought it was right to take things from greatful old men. That's just wrong and cold hearted. The man thanked me once again before I hung up and sank into my seat, a deep sigh escaping my parted lips as I ran a hand through my hair.

"Thank you Duncan, for calling him," Princess said, making me jump as I stood up and looked at her. I took note of her smile and then the wraps around her waist and the paper in her hand which was obviously the bill for the treatment.

"Uh no problem. I told him I'd take you to him so just tell me where to go," I mumbled before turning and heading towards the car. I was surprised when she hugged me from the side, resting her head against my chest as I stopped walking since it was awkward to walk in our position.

"You may thing it wasn't a big deal, but it meant a lot to me," she whispered before letting go and smiling up at me, her eyes slightly watering but she quickly wiped them away before heading towards the car. I stood in silence for a moment longer before shaking my head and following after her. This is girl is certainly not your average Princess.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

Ahh! I'm **so **sorry it took me this long to update! I updated the first three chapters too soon but last night at like 10 I finally started working on this chapter and just finished it now. It's not super long, I know that, but it gives you something to read and gives me more to work with. The next chapter of course is from Courtney's POV and it'll go into more details of what she did during the stitches and all that jazz before continuing on to when Duncan finally meets her dad.

I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter and I'm sorry for such a long wait! Please review!

_Kattie_


	5. Least He Can Do

Upon getting to the hospital I was quickly taken care of by doctors when they heard that I had been stabbed. A nurse brought me back to a room and cleaned off the cut, warning me that it would sting which was a _major _understatement. I hadn't even realized how deep the cut was until she was spraying some disinfectant down it and making me cry out as I gripped the edge of my seat and tried to level my breathing.

"You're lucky those men were there and helped you out otherwise this cut would've been a lot worse. Do you remember the face of your attacker so that we can report it to the police?" the nurse switched subjects, slowly washing out the disinfectant with some water before dab drying off the surrounding skin.

"His name was Matt, I know that much. I didn't get that good of a look at him however since most of the time I was in front of me as he held the knife." I couldn't help but shudder at the memory, remembering the way the blade was chillingly cold yet my blood had been warm and smooth as it slid down my back.

"That's alright, we don't expect you to remember everything. The police will be to talk to you and the men who helped you out later after we get you stitched up," she said calmly and I swallowed upon hearing about the _stitches_. Stitches mean needles and needles have never gone well with me.

"I'm going to give you a shot that will help numb the surrounding area and then I'm going to go get the doctor." I heard her open up something and my whole body tensed as I got ready for the injection. "This will hurt a little, but it's just like a pinch and it'll be over in a second."

_Psh, yeah right. _I thought before the pinching began and I let out a low piss. I can handle anything else but tell me I have to do something with needles and that's when my defenses drop and I begin to quiver like a frightened child.

The nurse took the needle out and began rubbing small circles in my back to get the injected fluid to travel through the area faster. "Now I'm going to go get the doctor, but I'll be back in just a few minutes. By then you should be numb and he'll be able to stitch you up," and with that said the nurse was gone; leaving me to slowly look forward to the dread of the stitches that were soon to come. I've had stitches once before from when I fell off my bike and got a rather large portion of my knee cut open and even since then the horrible experience with needles have stuck with me.

When the door opened again, I began to shake.

"Ms. Cliena, I'm here to give you your stitches. Don't worry, it'll be over real quick and if you're good I'll give you a lollie pop when it's over," the man teased and I noticed then just how good looking he was. With well cut, thick brown hair and a nice care-free smile I felt myself not feel as scared about the needle. He was tall and thin, maybe a little too thin, but still good looking all the same.

"Please Doctor, spare me the lollie pop talk. Lets just get this over with, I'm already late for breakfast with my dad," I said, seemingly calm although I was still shaking slightly and my breathing was hitched.

"Aw yes, breakfast with pops. I'm guess that Nurse Silvia already told you about the police and they'll be over to your father's place at 2 this afternoon in order to take names and get your story on what happened." I nodded at all of this while cringing when I heard his chair wheel across the ground and stop behind me; his gloved hands running a wipe over my cut which I only knew he was doing since one of his hands was gripping my hip to hold me in place.

"Alright, I'm going to start now. If at any time you want me to stop just say so and I will." Once again I nodded to all of this before taking a deep breath and he began. All I could really feel was the slight pull of my skin which just thinking about made me feel sick, but otherwise the whole thing went rather well. It wasn't as bad since I didn't have to see him actually pulling and sewing together my skin.

_Ugh, stop thinking about that. _And I did just that, putting my mind instead somewhere else. That somewhere else happened to end up being the guy waiting out for me in the waiting room which made me puzzled as to just why I was thinking of him. Sure Duncan had been the one to 'save' me and was undoubtedly good looking, but he was also a complete ass to me from the moment I woke up. What with tackling me to the ground and then flipping me over, not forgetting that he never failed to mention how he'd rather not have me at his place and calling me Princess. What kind of nickname is that anyway?!

"Uh, Ms. Cliena, I'm all done here. You can leave now," the doctor said, standing in front of me. I shook myself from those thoughts and smiled up at him, telling him thank you as I left the room and headed back out towards Duncan. When I found him he was just hanging up the pay phone before he sank back to his seat and ran a hand through his hair; sighing tiredly.

"Thank you Duncan, for calling him." My voice seemed to startle him as he jumped from his seat and stood before me, eyes darting to the bill in my hand which I planned on giving to my father once I saw him.

"Uh no problem. I told him I'd take you to him so just tell me where to go," he said awkwardly before heading towards the exit. I sighed at how difficult Duncan was being before jogging to catch up and hugging him from the side. He came to an awkward stop and I pulled away from him with a smile on my lips and tears forming in my eyes.

"You may think it wasn't a big deal, but it meant a lot to me," I whispered to him before continuing towards the car. Duncan paused behind me before I heard him follow after me, pulling his keys out of his pocket as we got closer to the black mustang. I still find myself staring as we near the car, taking in just how beautiful and temping it looked. This was a classic car that had a white racer strip going up the middle of it; a pure beauty.

"Are you going to gawk at the car all day or get in," Duncan asked rather rudely, already sliding into the driver's seat. I shot him a look before getting into the car as well, hissing as my back made contact with the cold leather seat.

"Does it hurt?" he asked suddenly, causing me to jump from the break in silence. I slowly turned to look at Duncan, noting that he didn't take his eyes off the road as I continued to study him.

"Yeah, a little, but I'd rather have this than be dead. I really can't thank you guys enough but hopefully my father will be able to arrange some more proper thanks," I finally spoke, knowing that my dad would give these three anything they wanted for saving my life. He's just a humble old man that's holding on to anything he has left, me of course being one of those things, and with a large wallet it makes easy for paying back people for keeping me safe; even if I do come out of it scratched.

"Really, none of that is in order. DJ would probably have my hide if I did accept it anyway," Duncan grumbled, obviously showing that he wouldn't mind accepting the money my father was bound to offer him.

"Well I'm just warning you now that my father probably won't be taking no for an answer." I looked at the street we were on and quickly began to recognize some signs. "Turn right down here and then take a left at the end of the block. It's the place at the corner on the right side; hard to miss," I directed him and with a nod Duncan did as told. When he came to a stop where I told him to, his eyes were wide while staring up at the huge building.

"What?" I asked innocently, unbuckling my seat belt and carefully getting out of the car, wincing at the feeling of the skin stretching with my movements. Duncan got out of the car as well and stood next to me on the sidewalk.

"You live _here_?" he asked in disbelief, still staring up. I don't blame him much seeing as the building _is _rather massive standing at an impressive 34 stories high with pent house after pent house and so many rich people throwing out piles of money to keep their view of the city.

"You say that like it's impossible to fathom. Now hurry up, I'd like to see my father and it's going to be a long ride up to the 30th floor. Not afraid of heights, are you Duncan?" With a tease thrown into my words, I walked forward to the building; smiling and nodding at the humble doorman. Duncan followed me just as I knew he would since at this point he was probably too curious to suddenly bail on me. Surprisingly the elevator wasn't that full with only a few stops on the way but otherwise a fast trip up.

"I don't have my key…," I muttered, searching all of my pockets twice in hopes of finding it.

"Then you knock," Duncan said as if it were obvious before pounding his fist against the white double doors. It was hard not to hear the quick foot steps rushing towards the door and soon it was thrown open, my father standing in the doorway with red puffy eyes and a slight prickle on his face.

"Hey dad," I practically whispered, suddenly unable to find my voice. He made some sort of gasping noise before stepping forward and taking me into his arms. I felt my own tears begin to form and soon I too was crying, hugging my father close to me and taking in his scent; just glad to be back in his arms once more. Last night I had been so close to never being able to see this man again and now all I wanted to do was spend every moment possible with him and just take in the fact that I was still there with him.

"Oh my precious Courtney. I was so scared," he made out weakly, squeezing me tightly which made me wince and let out a low hiss. Right away my father pulled away from me and gave out an apology, lifting up the back of my shirt to get a look at the stitches even though he couldn't see them due to the large bandage covering the area.

"It's alright Dad, the doctor said it should heal fine," I assured him and he just nodded before looking over at Duncan who stood a few feet next to me; rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly while staring down at his feet. My father coughed just as awkwardly and I quickly hooked my arm through Duncan's, pulling him over closer to me with a smile.

"Dad, this is Duncan. Him and his two buddies, Geoff and DJ who couldn't make it due to work, were the ones who helped me last night. Duncan was nice enough to drive me to the hospital this morning to get the stitches and then take me over here. Duncan, this is my dad," I introduced them, the smile still gracing my lips as the two men looked each other over.

"It's uh, nice to meet you Sir," Duncan said awkwardly, sticking out his hand in some attempt to be formal. My father simply smiled before grasping the outstretched hand and using it to pull Duncan into a hug. To say that Duncan was shocked and not sure what to do would be an understatement. It started with him just standing there awkwardly before he finally patted my father's back just as awkwardly and then they pulled away; Duncan still as awkward as ever if not more.

"Come on inside," my father offered, stepping to the side and holding the door open more. Duncan seemed somewhat reluctant but I took hold of his arm and pulling him into the house, suppressing my giggles due to how funny I found the situation. Even though I've known Duncan for not even 24 hours, I can still tell that he doesn't seem like the type of person to be awkward but instead usually in control so to see him like this is actually rather funny.

"Dad I'm going to go change, try not to scare him off." I added in a wink at this before heading off to my room. Taking off and putting on clothes proved to be more difficult than I had originally thought since it added strain on my back as I pulled the shirt off over my head. Pulling off jeans also turned out to be a little hard since I had to bend over to pull them fully off. So to avoid this conflict later on I pulled on some gym pants that were easy enough to get off along with a loose fitting t-shirt that wouldn't rub up against the bandage. Running a quick brush through my hair before pulling it into a pony tail, I returned to the living room to find Duncan sitting on one of the couches while my father sat across from him in an arm chair; neither man saying a word making the air about them odd.

I coughed when I got nearer and Duncan all but jumped from his seat to stand. "Well I've returned you so I guess I'll just be heading back now. Bye Mr. Cliena, Courtney," he said, looking between me and my father who stood as well.

"Now I wouldn't feel right just sending you off without giving you a proper thanks for saving my daughter's life. How much would you like?" he offered out of the blue causing my eyes to widen at how forward he was being. Looking over at Duncan, I could see that his eyes had widened with seemingly just as much shock.

"Really I can't accept your money. It just wouldn't be right," he quickly turned down my dad.

"Tell I can't just let you off empty handed. How about I treat you to dinner tomorrow night? I have to go for a business meeting anyway and at least this way Courtney won't have to worry about putting up with a bunch of old guys like me for a whole dinner." I blushed at this, muttering that he was over exaggerating.

"That's kind Mr. Cliena, but I wouldn't have anything to wear since I'm sure the place you're talking about for dinner isn't a fast food joint," Duncan said in all seriousness, but my dad laughed as if it were a joke.

"Please, Mr. Cliena is what my business partners call me. Just call me Thomas, Duncan and if you have nothing to wear then let me take you out shopping for a tux later this afternoon. Please, it's the least I can do Duncan and I'll feel bad if I do any less," my father was quick to throw in and I could see Duncan's will power slowly beginning to fade.

"Just dinner right?" he finally asked unsurely. My father laughed once again before clapping Duncan on the back in approval.

"That a boy. How about some breakfast? You look like you could use a couple more pounds on you." With that said he took off towards the kitchen to tell his chief to start cooking up some breakfast, leaving me with Duncan who was standing around probably wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"Thank you Duncan," I said quietly, smiling at him.

"It's uh no problem, but really I was fine without the dinner," he was quick to tell me and I just laughed while walking towards him.

"Let my old man at least have this, it's not often he gets to repay someone for helping him since it's usually the other way around. Besides, its just one dinner so you've got nothing to worry about." I saw Duncan relax slightly at those words which was good since I didn't want him to be tense around my dad since he really was just trying to help.

"Now come on, lets go eat. I promise not to let him shove _too _much down your throat," I joked which earned me a laugh from him before we both headed into the kitchen.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

Ahh! You know I'm finding that a lot of my ending A/Ns are beginning with 'ahh!' which probably has to do with the fact that I've been like the crappiest updater ever. Trust me, it's not something I'm exactly proud of. I have a reason though because I had some _horrible _writer's block for this story but it's all cleared up now so updates should hopefully be coming sooner now.

Um I'm not completely happy with the way this chapter ended, but so far everything is going according to plan which is good enough for me so that's always good. Despite me taking forever to update, I still hope that everyone reviews and that they enjoyed the chapter 

_Kattie _


	6. Walls

As if the hug Princess had given me didn't make me feel awkward enough around her then she had to bring up that her father would give me and the guys like _anything _we wanted for saving her. Normally I would've jumped on this opportunity but the night before DJ had given me a talk about this and said that I wasn't to accept anything that was too extreme from the old guy since he's probably bound to be willing to throw money all over at us for saving this daughter. Really I'm all for that because I have a rather crappy job at Starbucks and bills to pay along with staying on the good side of the police so I could use some extra bucks in my wallet.

Of course though DJ had to be the good guy he is and since I don't wanna disappoint him I've promised him not to accept anything too outlandish from the guy. Damn sometimes I really do hate the impact my friends have on me; always trying to make me a better person.

I met them at a party 3 years ago shortly after I dropped out of my senior year of high school and was going to get wasted after a fight with my dad. It was Geoff who I met first since he was the one behind the bar, laughing and joking with everyone who came up asking for a drink. When I came up asking for something strong that would get me wasted fast he gave me a drink, but asked what was eating me up so much that I wanted to forget. Five drinks later and I finally lifted my shirt and showed him the bruises covering my abdomen and back.

_"Damn man, where'd you get those?" Geoff asked, eyes wide as he started at the ugly purple and green bruises. I dropped my shirt and sat back down, chugging down a shot before slamming it down on the bar top._

_"My dad. I dropped out of high school and he wasn't too happy to find out," I told him, not even bothering to lie because the alcohol had gotten to my brain and was making me relax and just not really care as much._

_"Does anyone else know? Like a neighbor?" he questioned, looking seriously concerned; or it may have just be the alcohol affecting my perception of things._

_"Oh I'm sure they know since my dad loves yelling at me, but they don't do anything and why really should they? I'm just some high school drop out bum that'll end up on the streets begging for money for drugs. Why waste their breath on me?" I muttered darkly, my hands becoming tightly bound fists; anger flowing through my veins and heating my blood. _

_"Where are you staying tonight?" Geoff suddenly asked and I thought about it while I was sipping at my beer._

_"I don't know. I'll either stumble back home, get yelled at, knocked around a little, and then collapse on the couch or I'll sleep on the streets. I've done it before," I told him indifferently. _

_"Not tonight man. How about you crash at my place? I'm sure my roomy wouldn't mind; he's stumbling around here somewhere." Geoff then began looking through the crowd, standing up on his toes to be able to look over the heads of people in hopes of finding someone._

_"Look that's a nice offer and all, but I don't know you well enough to go crash at your place," I quickly said, drunkenly sliding from my barstool and just barely managing to not fall once I was standing on my own two feet. The room spun as colors and faces blurred, my eyes desperately trying to find something I could take hold of to save myself from falling. Just as I was sure I was about to fall face first onto the floor, two pairs of hands grabbed me and managed to pull me back up so that I was standing straight._

_"Thanks," I muttered, noticing Geoff as one of the guys that had helped me while the other one was a tall African American guy. _

_"Wow Geoff, you weren't kidding about him being wasted," the guy I didn't know said, a small laugh in his voice._

_"Yeah, well he's had a ruff life as far as I know so tonight we're gonna help him out and let him crash at our place," Geoff stated and I felt the other man stiffen while I was still trying to regain some balance on my feet; the room not spinning as much._

_"No way man. I don't want to be harboring some drunken drop out at our place because you feel bad for him. Besides, he'll probably puke all over the place tomorrow morning and I'll be the one left cleaning it up." At those words I ripped my arm out of his hold, eyes narrowing dangerously as my eyes heated up with angry tears. _

_Damn, he's right. Known me for about 2 minutes and already he can tell just what kind of guy I am. _

_It hurt to think like that as I hissed at them to shove off and turned away, stumbling through the crowd to God knows where. _

_"Come on Duncan, he didn't mean it. DJ's just a little more cautious about things than I am." His words didn't even faze me as I brushed him off and kept trying to walk forward to where I believed the door was. Hell, I don't even remember how I got to this place or whose place it is or where I am. For all I know, I can be somewhere in China but that honestly wouldn't matter to me because right now all I care about is getting out of this building and away from that guy who can read me so easily. _

_Being read makes me feel weak and vulnerable; like I'm easy to see through and I can't take someone by surprise. Pretty much, I enjoy having the upper hand. Always have, always will. I need to be in control in order to keep my head level which is kinda ironic since I'm always running off getting wasted and completely losing all sense of my straight thinking; but then again getting drunk was my idea so it all makes sense in my unbearably _twisted _world._

_"It's because we once helped someone out, and they ended up stealing some of our stuff in the middle of our night. We extended our hand to them and they ripped off one of our fingers before spitting it back at us," Geoff finally told me and I came to as sudden of a stop as I could and pathetically slowly turned to face him; eyes narrowed once again with anger._

_"So he just assumed that I would do that because I have green hair, piercings, and don't wear clean pressed clothes?!" I was trying to hold back my anger, honestly I was, but I tend to be a bit of an emotion drunk; letting my anger get the best of me and making me act on impulse. When this happens, I don't really care who's there to see it all lay out before them; I just _go _and don't stop; _can't _stop. It's unhealthy and sometimes even scares me the next day when I think over what I can remember of the previous night; staring down at bloody knuckles and wondering if it's my dry crusted blood or someone else's. _

_"Maybe that is what DJ thought, but it's not the way _I _think. Don't let one bad meeting completely set you off dude. You're a total mess." This statement made my pride flare up as I defended myself, claiming that I wasn't a mess when in fact I knew I was that and then some._

_"Oh really? Is that why you were about to head into the girl's bathroom?" his voice was smug, a smirk clinging to his words as I turned and managed to make out the blurry word 'women' on the door._

_Well I'll be damned; I really am a mess. _

_…_

_Not that I hadn't already realized that. It's just that when I've been knocking back the drinks my mind tends to process things a bit slower than normal. _

_"Please Duncan, just let me sleep a little easier tonight and crash on the couch. I don't want you stumbling around on the street. God my sister's would smack me silly if they even knew I was here, let alone thinking about letting someone that's been put through shit leave to either sleep on the streets or go back to an abusive home," Geoff tried to tell me but I snapped and grabbed him by his collar, everything suddenly clear as if I had just jumped into a pool of ice while I shoved him against the nearest wall; an animal growl escaping from behind my clenched teeth._

_"I don't need your damn pity and I certainly don't want it. I never asked you for this _specially treatment _and I definitely don't remember asking you to get involved in my problems. So how about you just shove off and leave me the fuck alone," I hissed, ignoring the stares people were sending us. If any of them knew me, they were probably expecting a fight; placing their winning bets on me since everyone that knows my name knows I have a reputation for fighting. _

_"Then let's have it not about you. This is about me now and I don't give a damn what happens to you. All I'm doing is offering you a place to puke tonight. You in or not?" Geoff asked, tone completely normal as if I didn't have him pinned against a wall, fist balling and __**aching **__to punch something. With one final studying look, I pulled away from him and felt my jaw and hands relax even if just by a fraction._

_"Yeah. I'm in."_

And believe it or not, we've been friends even since. Crazy how the world works, isn't it.

"You can just stop here," doing as told; I pulled up next to the curb before finally resting my eyes on the building I had just parked next to. Never before, had I thought that I would ever be about to enter or better yet even be this _close _to a building like this, but yet here I was; standing at the edge of the curb while staring at this princess next to me.

"What?" her voice was innocent and sweet and made the buzzed hairs on the back of my neck prickle as I studied her. Already I could tell that her eyes had lit up as a smile graced her features probably from just being closer to her father. The connection Princess had with her father made my own heart ache as I thought back to the years I had spent with my father and how never once had _that _expression fell upon my face when thinking of going to see him.

Violently shoving the skeletons back into my closet, I followed the girl, who I'm now noticing is pleasantly curvy; into the building and towards the elevator. When we finally reached Princess' floor, which is the _**30**__**th**_, she started fumbling through her pockets, muttering that she didn't have her key.

"Then you knock," I stated before doing without thinking and pounding my fist effortlessly against the white double doors. I'm pretty sure she heard the foot steps too since her eyes began to light up as her smile slowly grew; awaiting the moment for the doors to be thrown open so she could once again be reunited with her beloved father. Of course all of this did happen and tears were in both of their eyes as they hugged, my chest aching so painfully that for a moment I couldn't breath; instead concentrating on my feet and willing myself to think of anything _but _my own horrible father.

"Dad, this is Duncan. Him and his two buddies, Geoff and DJ who couldn't make it due to work, were the ones who helped me last night. Duncan was nice enough to drive me to the hospital this morning to get the stitches and then take me over here. Duncan, this is my dad." Princess introducing me and hooking her own arm through mine is what shook me from my painful thoughts and I quickly looked up from my feet; willing myself to not show what I was truly feeling.

"It's uh, nice to meet you Sir," I said lamely, holding out my hand to shake since it seemed like the business thing to do and I honestly wasn't sure how else to greet him. Seems this guy had a different plan in mind since, using my hand, he pulled me into a hug; only letting go of me after I had patted his back. The whole ordeal was awkward, this man just trying to honestly show his gratitude while I was trying not to think about if this is what it truly felt like to be hugged by a father.

"Come on inside," my brain registered before my legs started moving and I soon found myself inside of the expensive penthouse type place. The whole place was clean and in order, screaming rich with random antique vases and statues littering the sides of the rooms; held up on stands and cleaner than my clothes probably were.

My attention drifted from the walls when Princess announced she was going to change, telling her father not to scare me off.

_A little too late for that_. I thought, but all the same I remained where I was sitting on the couch. While she was gone, all her dad did was stare at me; making me feel self conscious and wondering if there was something on my face. Was there a spot on my shirt? Did I not fit into his picture perfect life?

Well of course I didn't. I am, after all, a high school drop out hanging out with his straight A _Princess _daughter. The old man is probably studying my every move, waiting to see me slip up so he can have some reason to call the cops on me and accuse me of sexually assaulting Princess or something like that.

Speak of the devil, she chose now to return, sensing the tension in the air and coughing to draw her father's attention. As much as I hated to admit it (for that matter never _will _admit it out loud), my attention was drawn to her the moment I heard her soft steps from down the hall and even in some sweat pants and a loose fitting t-shirt she still looked good; hair pulled back into a pony with a few strands falling forward and framing her heart shaped face.

Jumping from my seat, I quickly turned to the old man before me; trying to fake a smile as I spoke. "Well I've returned you so I guess I'll just be heading back now. Bye Mr. Cliena, Courtney." Her name sounded good rolling off my tongue although it didn't hold the playful tease that 'Princess' did. Besides, it was fun to watch her react so much to a simple nickname. It's not like after tomorrow she'll have to put up with me calling her that anyway.

"Now I won't feel right just sending you off without giving you proper thanks for saving my daughter's life. How much would you like?" The bluntness this old guy used surprised me and my eyes widened just as the girl's next to me did. Seems she was just surprised by his actions as I was.

Right away, I started to turn him down as nicely as I could; remembering what DJ had told me about not taking _any _money from this guy. "Well I can't just let you off empty handed. How about I treat you to dinner tomorrow night? I have to go for a business meeting anyway and at least this way Courtney won't have to worry about putting up with a bunch of old guys like me for a whole dinner." At least this guy wasn't in denial about being old, but I still tried to talk my way out of the dinner; claiming that I wouldn't have anything formal to wear which is the truth. All that's in my closet are some hoodies, a couple of long sleeve shirts, two pairs of shoes tossed on the floor and then in my dresser there are some darkly colored t-shirts and some pants and shorts.

"Please, Mr. Cliena is what my business partners call me. Just call me Thomas, Duncan and if you have nothing to wear then let me take you out shopping for a tux later this afternoon." Once again this guy just wouldn't give up, how calm and at ease he was being with me putting me on the defense; waiting for something bad to happen. "Please, it's the least I can do Duncan and I'll feel bad if I do any less," he threw in, sincerity in his voice that made my will power begin to fade.

A sigh escaped my lips as I resisted the urge to run my hand through my hair. "Just dinner right?" My question seemed to please him as he laughed and clapped me on the back, a smile spreading through his face and reaching his eyes; something I solemnly saw. Just when I thought that I'd be able to escape the Cliena place and actually get back to my crappy apartment so that I could get some more sleep, the man went on about breakfast and how I could use a couple more pounds. I may appear skinny and probably rather scrawny, but anyone who's seen me without a shirt knows that I am anything but when in fact it's all muscle sculpted tightly to my bones. Really throws guys when I punch them and they actually stumble or fall on their ass.

"Thank you Duncan," Princess told me, bringing my attention away from my thoughts with her dazzling smile. Damn, everything about this girl really is perfect.

"It's uh no problem, but really I was fine without dinner," I reminded her quickly and she just laughed while walking over to me. She said something but I wasn't really paying attention, instead thinking of my own father and if he would ever do something like this for someone if they saved me. The thought made me laugh which it seems was at a good time since Princess was smiling as if she had just told a joke.

I decided while she was pulling me towards the kitchen that I'd let her believe it was her joke that had made me laugh. I'm not sure what it was, but I just couldn't bring myself to see Princess upset about something as useless as my father and my past.

No, she's a princess and shouldn't have to know about what goes on beyond her castle walls.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

So I know this chapter didn't go beyond where chapter 5 left off with Courtney's POV, but it gave you some background information on Duncan and revealed some of his dark past. I hope the characters have remained in character through this chapter since that really is something I try to keep up with. Oh! And I updated like quickly this time which is mega good because I'm getting back my inspiration for this story.

Keep the juices flowing! Review!

Kattie


	7. Exhustion

Breakfast with Duncan and my father was certainly something that I hadn't experienced before; but it was also entertaining in an almost twisted sort of way. Duncan was trying to be as polite as possible while also trying not to gain twenty or so pounds because of my father shoveling food down his throat.

_Poor Duncan. _I thought, a small smile gracing my lips. _How will he ever survive dinner? _

Thinking of dinner made me think of how it's usually boring, but these past few years hadn't been that bad since Bridgette had always been there to keep me company and flirt with the older sons of some CEO.

"Oh! How could I have forgotten her!" I suddenly cried, sitting up in my chair at the table. The two males sitting there looked up at me with raised eyebrows; an image that made me want to laugh because of how alike they appeared, but I had other things to do.

"Daddy can I borrow your phone? I have to call Bridgette so we can meet up," I explained, the blush still loitering on my cheeks from embarrassment.

"Today? Well what about Duncan here? We've got to get him in a tux," my father reminded me and I groaned out of habit, quickly realizing just how rude it must sound to Duncan.

"You don't really need me to go tux shopping. Besides, Bridgette and I have to get dresses. How about while we go dress shopping you boys go tux shopping and then at dinner we can all surprise each other with how lovely we look." My words were hopeful and the smile on my lips that of which I knew my father couldn't deny. He'd never been very good at denying me what I wanted even since I knew how to talk and could catch on to the way things worked in the house.

He appeared to be studying me, putting up a rather strong battle before finally giving in with a smile, shake of his head, and a sigh. "Alright, but try not to totally max out my credit card," he warned me and I smiled joyfully; taking said card from him after he had pulled it out of his wallet and then placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you daddy," I practically sung to him.

"Anything for my Princess." Upon hearing the snicker come from Duncan, I remembered that he had been there to witness the whole event and the blush spread back to my face ten-fold. It was one thing to have to have him see me pull out the 'daddy's angel' card on my father and act all sweet, but another to have him hear my father call me Princess after having me argue so many times with him that I _wasn't _in fact a 'princess'.

_Great. Now he'll never let me live this down. _But even thinking that couldn't crush my high spirits and I think the thought may have even lifted them slightly. Gosh I am just starting to act odder and odder as the days go on in New York.

_At this rate my mother will probably explode when I come back home. _And somehow this thought made me want to snicker myself, but I held it back knowing that it wasn't the appropriate thing to do when thinking of one's mother.

"Well Duncan, I guess you'll be leaving with my father soon to go shopping as will I with Bridgette." It was the best I could do when preparing a good bye for said man since things between us had been awkward as of late. In fact things are almost always seemingly awkward, a tension residing between us that sometimes made the air thick.

Taking my hint, Duncan stood and faced me; my father just sitting and watching the exchange. "Right," he said, pushing me on to continue.

"I guess I'll just be seeing you tonight then." Gosh how I _despise _awkward situations with near strangers especially with my father watching and making me feel like I was being judged on how I interacted with the man before me.

I wasn't sure what to say now and thankfully Duncan stuck out his hand and I slipped my own hand into his; giving it a firm shake despite how petite my hand was in comparison to his. Duncan's grip was strong and warm, not too controlling but still experienced and respectable. My father had always said you could learn a lot about a person simply by shaking their hand and shaking Duncan's hand now I understood how that could be true.

"Thank you again, really," I whispered, hoping that it would be only him that heard. His only response was a nod, his face still straight and eyes still boring down into mine in a way that made me want to shiver from the feeling of being studied and examined. It was then that I noticed how long our hand contact had gone on and quickly I dropped his hand, my own falling to my side while his slowly returned to his side; fingers twitching slightly which made a string of thoughts go rushing through my mind.

_Did he not like touching me? Were my hands not soft because I haven't put on any lotion today? What if he thinks I'm a tiny girl that needs looking after because my handshake was too weak? _

Well, in theory last night had already been an example that I did need looking after of since I had managed to wind myself off being held at knife range and having to have Duncan come to my rescue; but that had been last night. This was today and I wanted, if nothing else, to make a better impression of myself with him.

"Daddy I'll see you tonight as well. I'm sure Bridgette will be very happy to be able to see you again," I told my father and saw him smile, happy at the thought of seeing my long time friend after having not seen her for almost a year. With a slight nod to Duncan, I turned and exited the room; right away hearing my father start to talk to Duncan in hushed tones that made me worry just what exactly they could be talking about. It must've been about me since my father waiting until I was gone from the room to bring it up, or maybe it was simply timing with everything since I had stopped to thank Duncan and he was waiting for me to be finished speaking before talking himself.

_Yeah, that must be it. _I assured myself, but someone I couldn't be quiet sure that it _wasn't _me they were talking about in the kitchen.

_Ugh, I really do need to talk to Bridgette. _

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

"Court!" The cry was shrill and certainly chocked full of joy as the sound of hurried footsteps thumped on the sidewalk as my best friend since forever, Bridgette, came running towards me. I hugged her tightly upon seeing her, feeling tears sting my eyes with over whelming emotions. It truly had been much too long since I had last seen my blonde sporty friend that had always managed to keep my spirits up during middle and high school. Really, if it hadn't been for her I probably wouldn't be as successful as I am now… well as successful as a freshly graduated high school student could be at such a young age.

"Oh Bridgette you look gorgeous! And you grew out your hair again," I pointed out, patting down some of the loose strands and noting that it was still as soft as ever despite how much my friend was always in the ocean with her hair covered in salt water.

"And you of course Courtney are as lovely as usual. It still surprises me that guys are dropping left and right for you," she said with a sly smile and I felt myself blush, thinking back to my lack of experience in the 'boys' area. That had always been Heather's playfield and just thinking of the high school Queen Bee left a bitter taste in my mouth but at the same time I couldn't help but respect her to some extend. She never spread any rumors about me and I never talked down to her, because we both, in sort of way, ruled the school and 'rulers' such as ourselves much show respect towards one another.

"Well that's because they just can't respect the fact that a woman now a days is entitled to her own opinion and has strong thoughts," I proclaimed, tone that of like reciting it from a book. Bridgette laughed at my words and I knew it was because she couldn't count that the number of times I had pulled that line during high school on her hands and toes combined.

"Same old Courtney. And here I was kinda worried that maybe you had changed over the year; become some punk rocker chick with tattoos who smoked," Bridgette joked but I still couldn't hold back the scoff.

"Lets not go wandering onto that subject just yet, shall we? Right now, we need to go dress shopping for tonight. There's a dinner event and I over-heard daddy talking on the phone and some of his work buddies said they were bringing their sons. You know how much fun it is when they do," I reminded her even though she knew all too well. At these parties, Bridgette and I, though of course mostly her, would usually flirt with the CEO's sons who were a few years older than ourselves. It was harmless really and we meant nothing by it, never expecting anything aside from a few giggles later on when thinking back on it all. Still, it just gave us another reason to get all dressed up.

_But is that the only reason? _A part of me inquired and I knew, as much as I really _hate _to admit it, that the sons weren't the only reason why I felt like getting extra dressed up today. In all truth, I really did want to impress Duncan which confuses me since what he thinks of me shouldn't matter, but yet it did.

"Earth to Courtney. You're about to walk into a pole." Bridgette's warning jarred me out of my thoughts and I quickly stopped just before walking into said pole.

"Thanks Bridge," I said, glancing back at the pole as we walked on and wondering just how I could've possibly missed it.

"No problem." There was then silence but I knew it wouldn't last long because she was out for answers. Another couple of minutes of silence before, "So… what were you thinking about so intently that you didn't notice that huge pole right before I warned you about it?" Aw yes, there were the questions I knew Bridgette would eventually be asking me.

"It's nothing," I told her too quickly, silently also telling her that what I had just said was a lie and that I was keeping something from her.

"One way or another Courtney, I'll find out eventually," she warned me and I knew all too well just how truthful Bridgette was being.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

Dress shopping had been a full success with me and Bridgette both finding gorgeous dresses that would surely be drawing many pairs of eyes to us tonight. She had settled for a lovely sky blue dress that ended just past her knees, halter ties keeping it up at her chest with a tight corset-like middle. It complimented her eyes and her natural tan that came from spending so much time out and especially surfing whenever she could and where ever she could. On her feet were a pair of white kitten heals

I had chosen a gold colored dress that went down to my feet and then trailed behind some. It was tight to the point where I couldn't really take deep breaths but the dress was totally worth it. The top of the dress is strapless and pushing up on my chest making my b-cup become fuller and look more womanly but also left no use or room for a bra so I was forced to go without one. As for the bottom, it hugged my figure, fanning out ever so slightly at my feet so that I had room to walk. With some cute golden flats and a simple diamond necklace that rested just before my dress began; my look for tonight was complete and I was actually looking forward to the dinner.

"Thanks for taking me out shopping Courtney. I'll see you tonight when the limo picks me up," Bridgette said with a cheery smile, stepping out of the car and waving as I drove away. Despite how much I love Bridgette, as if she were my sister, shopping with her was somewhat of an exercise since she had so much energy that I was always running to keep up with.

A heavy sigh slipped from between my lips as I laid my head back against the back of the seat. "Long day Miss Cliena?" the driver asked, an amused smile floating across his lips. Despite my exhaustion, a small laugh still echoed through the car with a smile on my face.

"You could say that Lucas," I told said man, knowing that there was no need to go into details since he knew just how long the day was seeing as he was the one who had to drive us around.

"And then you have that big dinner tonight. Well be sure to get lots of rest while you still have time Ms. Cliena," Lucas told me and I simply nodded before slipping into a stiff sleep.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

So I know that it took me a while to update, but I'm updating within the same month as the last update which is actually very huge for me  I hope that everyone enjoyed the update even though not a lot happened in it. Sadly the next chapter won't have a whole lot more either except for some awkward moments between Duncan and Courtney's dad. Chapter 9, however, will go through the dinner and some good things should happen then. I haven't exactly planned it out yet so I'm not promising anything.

Thanks for the reviews! Please review again! Oh and I have a poll up that I need everyone to vote on. I'm going to create an OC and you'll have two choices: To either make it a boy or a girl and then a name. I'll give a list of names I want for it to either as a boy or a girl and all you need to do is vote. I'm telling you now that the OC won't be showing up for a while, but I need to know the gender and name before I can start writing and planning things out for them.

So please go review and vote!

_Kattie _


	8. Image

Breakfast with Princess and her father was certainly… _interesting_, to say the least. The old man was always telling these stories about her past, making her blush and try to defend herself while I just sat there and ate their kick ass food. Seriously, I don't think I've ever tasted bacon done so well; it was like heaven in the kitchen.

"Daddy can I borrow your phone? I have to call Bridgette so we can meet up," Princess said, breaking the relative silence that had fallen over the table.

"Today? Well what about Duncan here? We've got to get him in a tux," Mr. Cliena reminded her and I bit the inside of my tongue to keep from groaning. Oh how I've always _despised _dressing fancy for anything; I feel like a damn monkey. Princess quickly explained something to her dad about just meeting up there and a surprise or whatever (I was more focused on the food) and it ended with her thanking him.

"Anything for my Princess," the old man said sweetly and I snickered.

_Never gonna let her live down that one. _I silently promised myself, smirking in her direction while she just blushed. A part of me knew that she was mentally kicking herself for that which made the smirk stay on my face after the pleasing experience and until the silent breakfast was finished by Princess looking over in my direction while hastily clearing her plate.

"Well Duncan, I guess you'll be leaving with my father soon to go shopping as will I with Bridgette," she began looking rather awkward and speaking too formally for my taste. Who did she think she was talking to, the mayor?

_Bridgette. Why does that name sound so familiar? _I questioned to myself, trying to figure out where I knew that name from. Nothing came to mind so I pushed the thought out of my mind and turned to face her. "Right," I said simply.

"I guess I'll just be seeing you tonight then," Princess then continued, sounding just as awkward as before. I just nodded. It was then that I stuck out my hand, a proper way to say goodbye if not comfortable enough for a hug and not wanting to seem cold and do nothing. The girl before me smiled softly before sliding her small warm hand into mine, shaking it with a firm grasp which took me a bit by surprise. What surprised me more was the fact that when her hand came in contact with mine, I felt a small jolt of electricity.

"Thank you again, really," Princess whispered to me and I nodded; keeping my expression neutral. When she noticed how long the gesture had gone on, she quickly took her hand back; my own falling to my side with my fingers twitching slightly from the sudden change of warm to cold.

Turning from me, Princess went over to her father and hugged him while saying something about Bridgette being happy to see him again. Then, she nodded at me and left the room. There was silence before Mr. Cliena spoke,

"Is there anything you need from your place before we go get you fitted for your tux, Duncan?" A couple of things came to mind, like my knife, but the thought of him seeing where I liked made me quickly forget all of those so I just shook my head.

"Uh, no, but what am I going to do with my car? It's still parked out front." If anything happened to my baby, I think I would go on a killing rampage and the side of a street probably isn't the safest place for it; even if next to a really expensive building. The owner would probably see it and think some drunk just left it there and they'd call some guy to tow it!

"Don't worry son, I'll call the front desk and get them to take care of it. They can bring it down into my private garage," the older man confirmed and my interest was spiked upon hearing about this 'garage'.

"Private eh? So you own a bunch of expensive cars, right?" I couldn't resist asking, my love for sports cars and just cars in general shinning through.

"Oh yeah. Even have some bikes from back in the day. Courtney, of course, is going to be inheriting all of this when I pass." Looking over at me with a mysterious glint in his eyes, Mr. Cliena spoke in a hushed voice. "Would you like to see it?" he asked as if just mentioning his garage was a crime and had to be spoken with the utmost secrecy.

"Yeah," I said, speaking also in a hushed voice which made me feel slightly childish. But it seemed my answer pleased the man since a grin broke across his face and to be honest it kinda scared me.

"Then follow me," he said before walking briskly down a hall and towards what I would've thought was a closet, but upon opening the door, the inside looked much like an elevator.

_What? _

"Come on son, it'll fit both of us," Mr. Cliena assured me and I felt my chest tighten from some unknown force upon hearing him talk to me.

_Son?_

Only after having just saved his daughter, the old man already considered me this son and I wasn't sure what to think of it: to be appalled or pleased, maybe honored?

"Good now just stay still because it's been a while since I used this elevator and I'm not sure how good the cables are," he told me as we started to move and my eyes widened at I glanced over at him.

"What?" I hissed, hoping to god I hadn't just gotten into an unstable trap.

"Ha, you should've seen the look on your face! Of course it's stable," the old man said, laughing at me as I only glared at him.

_This man is crazy. _I thought, but I liked it. It felt very natural for some reason. It isn't everyday that an adult acts friendly with me.

"If you weren't taking me down in this crazy Batman style to see a bunch of expensive cars, I probably would've killed you right then," I admitted, crossing my arms within the rather small space. This just seemed to make the old man laugh harder and a smile broke across my face.

"Are you ready Duncan?" Mr. Cliena asked me when the elevator came to a stop and I raised my eyebrow at him; nodding all the same. "And you swear to secrecy? If you tell a soul, I'll have to kill you and trust me, I know some people," he warned me and I nodded mutedly. I couldn't tell whether he was joking or not, but I couldn't risk taking any chances; especially when there was just a door between me and a bunch of kick ass cars.

The man before me was still for a moment more before turning his back to me, blocking my vision of what he was doing and only leaving me to hear the sound of beeping on what I would guess to be a keypad. Then, the door opened.

"Whoa," was all I said before I was left shocked. Stretched before me was a huge room with just cars; tons and tons of cars that I will admit, made my knees a little weak.

"Welcome, to my little slice of heaven," Mr. Cliena said and I just stared ahead.

"How… how could you afford all of this?" I finally managed to ask, knowing that the collection before me must cost close to one billion dollars. Models this old don't just sell out for a couple grand and usually it cost a pretty penny on top of that to get them repaired.

"Well I invested in the right products and it also doesn't hurt that I own a multibillion dollar company," he told me, smiling proudly while running his hand over one of the nearby cars affectionately. I didn't blame him; I would kill to touch one, not to mention ride in one of those cars.

"Remind me to ask you for a job when I get tired of working at Starbucks," I joked, quickly looking over at the old man to see if he would be disgusted to find out I worked in such a place as Starbucks. There was no such look, however, just a glint in his eye with a smile on his face.

"Hmm, nothing beats the smell of fresh coffee," he commented and I just nodded, not really sure what else there was to say in reply. "Well, lets get in a car and get you a tux before the day is too late," Mr. Cliena then declared, walking over to a midnight blue striped racer car.

"You're really going to let me in there?" I asked, stunned but still able to walk towards the car and try not to drool over it.

"Is there some reason I _shouldn't_?" he questioned, an eyebrow raised up at me much in a way that reminded me of how Princess looks at me.

"Well no… it's just that, well... look at me. Would you honestly normally give a ride to a guy like me?" The question was blunt and to be honest it kinda hurt to say the words I did because it hit so close to home. Who would dare and trust me with something nice when I was just some punk living in filth? I mean, I'm proud of who I am and all, but _come on_.

"I see nothing wrong with you. You simply have a different way of expressing your personal style and I find it rather refreshing. Now Duncan, do you want to ride in his beauty, or not?" the man asked me and I couldn't help but smile at his words.

"Like hell I do," I confirmed before all but throwing open the door and jumping onto the leather seat. I was so excited I probably would've forgotten all about my seat belt had it not been for Mr. Cliena reminding me to buckle up as he started up the engine. Somehow he managed to navigate his way through the cars and towards a gate in the back I hadn't even realized, pressing a button on the ceiling of the car that made said gate open.

"Now _that _is bad ass. You've got some wicked style Mr. Cliena; the whole modern style bat-cave," I joked, whistling in a low tone of approval.

"Glad to hear you like is son, and please, just call me Thomas; even Tom if you'd like. 'Mr. Cliena' is much too formal and only really odd guys call me that," the man next to me joked and I nodded, thinking silently to myself.

_Why is this guy putting so much trust in me?_

"Sure thing, Tom," and with that said we drove off to some place I never would have even noticed before; talking about types of cars the whole way there.

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

"Oh quit fidgeting, will you? It'll only make you more uncomfortable," Mr. Cliena, I mean uh, Tom, told me, a smile on his lips although his voice was stern.

"Easier said than done. How do you mange with this thing around you're throat?" I asked, pulling at the bow tie and trying to loosen it. Was all of this irritation really necessary for just one night?

"The trick is to just relax and it doesn't hurt if you've broken in the tux and are used to wearing one," he told me and out of habit, I shot him a look.

_Yeah, because I'll really be able to relax while being thrust into a fancy restaurant with you and Princess being the only people I know there. Sounds like a real relaxing experience. _I thought sarcastically, following Tom as he led me past already crowded tables and into a back room that was otherwise silent.

"Whoa, talk about the back room," I muttered, looking around to notice the high ceilings, pillars in the four corners of the room, and probably thousand dollar paintings hanging on the walls with a huge window looking out over the city.

_The hell? Even restaurants have a better view! _I thought grimly, not the least bit surprised.

"It's a gorgeous view, isn't it Duncan?" Mr. Cliena asked from beside me, looking down at the city street and all of the car lights flashing by.

"Yeah," I agreed softly, just watching life go on below me while I stood up in this fancy ass place that I never would've _dreamed _I would be.

"Mr. Cliena, it's a pleasure to see you again," a man announced, joining us in the room and walking over to shake said man's hand.

"Mr. Adams, I'm glad to see you still have your health," Tom said, dropping the man's hand and clapping him on the back.

"Please, it was just a cold; nothing that could stop me," the man, Mr. Adams, joked before noticing me. "And who might this be?" he asked, my back stiffening at the feeling of being studied.

"This, Mr. Adams, is the man that saved my daughter's life, Duncan Hall," Mr. Cliena introduced me and I shot him a thankful look before shaking the new man's out stretched hand.

"So you're the man I've heard so much about? Well, I have to admit that you're not what I expected, but all the same you saved Courtney which makes you a good man in my books," Mr. Adams said and subconsciously my grip on his hand tightened which I guess he noticed since he quickly pulled away and smiled oddly at me.

_Not what you expected? Ass hole. _I thought, shooting him a look before being ushered to a seat by Tom. Soon the table began to fill up and there were only two seats left empty.

"Sorry we're so late daddy. Traffic was a nightmare," Princess said, walking into the room. Immediately, everyone stood and I followed suit, staring at the _woman _before me. The gold dress clung to her curves and with her hair pulled up into the elegant bun it showed off her flawless face and actually kinda cute ears.

_Cute ears? What the hell? Must've been something I drank. _I thought, only realizing then that I hadn't drunken anything upon arriving at the restaurant but nobody else knows that. I'll just say it was nerves… yeah, that's a good excuse.

"Courtney darling, so glad you arrived. Where's Bridgette?" Tom asked his daughter and it was then that I remembered all about this 'Bridgette' girl.

_Yeah, where is she?_

"Tom! It's so good to see you!" a new girl exclaimed, rushing forward and hugging the man. Right away, I noticed something about her that looked familiar, but it wasn't until she turned and I saw her face that I realized just who it was I was looking at.

"Bridgette?" I asked, dumbstruck to find out it was _her _Princess had been talking about.

"Duncan? Oh my gosh! I never thought it was you Courtney was telling me 'saved' her, but I guess the description of brute and ogre works pretty well," Bridgette told me with a giggle and I shot a look over at said Princess who was shooting a glare over at her friend while blushing.

"Brute and ogre, eh? Well remind me next time to leave her behind," I joked before walking over to Bridgette and hugging her. "I haven't seen you with Geoff for a while, where've you been hiding?"

"I haven't been hiding Duncan, it's called some people actually have responsibilities," Bridgette bugged me and I rolled my eyes, sitting back down in my seat with her and Princess sitting across from me.

"How do you two know each other?" Princess asked, her eye brow raised.

"You remember Geoff, right?" I asked and she nodded. "Well Bridgette is his girlfriend," I concluded and saw the realization flash in her mocha eyes.

"Oh," she said quietly before dinner was served and light talking went across the table. For a while, everything was fine; the waiters rotating about the table and refilling drinks.

"Would it kill you to say thank you once in a while?" Princess pointed out, shooting me a look as the waiter walked away after having refilled my water.

"Would it kill you to be not so up tight all the time?" I retorted, shooting her a look in return.

"I am _not _up tight!" she all but yelled, blushing when receiving the confused stares before lowering her voice to continue lecturing me from across the dinner table with Bridgette next to her who was talking o this guy she was seated next to. "And besides, manners are important because they don't make you looking out to be a barbarian such as yourself," she hissed.

"Can't you just pull the stick out of your ass and live a little without being so proper?" I asked, rolling my eyes at how anal Princess was being.

"There's nothing wrong with being proper and besides, I have an image to uphold even if I haven't been here in awhile," she declared and my back stiffened.

_'Image to uphold.' Bet she never thought I'd be a part of that 'image'. _I thought grimly, looking down at my hands. There was smudges of dirt on them, with dirt under my nails along with either red spray paint or blood. Princess' nails were neatly manicured, probably some flower on one of the nails while her father's were kept trimmed and clean without crossing the line of being homo.

I definitely wasn't part of the image she imagined.

"You okay Duncan?" her voice brought me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see her watching me with her curious mocha eyes.

"Yeah, just perfect." The bitter tone in my voice was noticeable to everyone; Princess flinching slightly while her father looked over nervously and Bridgette shot me a knowing look. I know it wasn't her fault for my mood, but suddenly I just felt like I was being judged by them; every move I made written down in some pocket book.

"I'm going to use the restroom. I'll uh, be back," I said quickly, finding it kinda hard to breathe in the dinning room that seemed to have shrunk two sizes within seconds. Without waiting for anyone to say something, I rose from my seat and headed out of the room; walking past Princess and smelling her expensive perfume. Even when I reached the bathroom, the smell was still in my nose and it seemed to be all I could breathe in. Turning on the water, I quickly started scrubbing my hands; trying to get the dirt off of them while a new scent of expensive _soap _took over my smell.

By the time I was done pretty much taking off the top layer of my skin on my hands, said part of my body was left red and pulsing; the steam from the hot water fogging up the mirror.

_Pull yourself together Duncan! You're loosing it over something as stupid as dirt! _I chastised myself, glaring at my reflection in the mirror. Had this been my own bathroom mirror, I probably would have punched it out, but I restrained myself and instead just dried my hands and returned to the table.

"What happened to your hands Duncan?" Princess asked, noticing how red they were right when I walked in. Quickly shoving them into my pockets, making up the excuse that I turned on the water too hot which in part was true, but I had done it on purpose.

"Oh, alright," was all she said before falling silent and taking a sip from her ice tea, looking down at the table sadly. A small part of me couldn't help but feel guilty, but at the same time I knew it would do no good to try and apologize or explain it to her.

_No, Princess would never understand what she didn't know existed._

**oo-oo-oo-oo-oo**

So sorry it took me so long to wait, but hopefully the wait will be worth it since I had my fantabulous beta-reader _edwardandbella4evah _work on the chapter with me to help me out with it. Seriously, having a beta-reader is great so if you're having trouble with your stories and need some help, get a beta-reader!

But not _edwardandbella4evah. _I have dibs ;)

Thank you for the reviews! Although I'm sad to say there were only 2 of them. I'm really hoping that won't stay the same for this chapter so please review and make me happy! Hmm… how about if you review I'll give you a preview of my in the works Courtney/Duncan story that my beta is helping me out with?

Does that sound fair? Because I think it does. I can give the preview either by email or PM, so tell me which you prefer (if it is email, be sure to include your email or PM it to me with the proper spacing so it shows up) and I'll send it over. It'll be the same preview for every reviewer (even then I'm not even sure what I'm going to be sending over) so reviewing under a whole bunch of random names won't get you anything else.

Though it would put my review count up (hehe).

Yeah so please review for that preview! Trust me; you'll be liking it because that story is going to be _hot_.

_Kattie_


	9. Mr Perfect

"Will you calm down Courtney? Dinner will be fine and we're barely even late," Bridgette tried to assure me as we walked inside of the restaurant, leaving the sound of the city streets behind us as the doors closed.

"That's easy for you to say," I grumbled. "You're not the one who has to worry about that ogre totally wrecking everything," I groaned, possibilities of what could happen tonight flooding my mind. Trust me, none of them were pleasant. Although, rethinking logically, and as odd as it may seem, I kinda trusted Duncan not to totally screw up everything. It seemed to me that he wanted to make a good impression just as much as I wanted him to.

"You make this guy sound like such a charmer," Bridgette joked, shooting me a smile. "He must have left one hell of an impression to have you talking about him so much. Tell me Courtney; did you happen to see this ogre naked?"

Dropping open my mouth, I stared at my friend wide eyed; an expression far from lady-like much to my disapproval. "I cannot _believe _you would suggest such a thing Bridgette! No!" I exclaimed in disgust; a blush still spreading to my cheeks despite my denial to the revolting thought in the first place.

"Oh drop the 'proper girl' act Court; we all know that you want to see him naked. Every girl wants to see the guy that saves her life naked; especially if saved from a thug," Bridgette reprimanded slyly, her cat-like eyes narrowing in playfulness. I was left speechless; following Bridgette as she walked towards the back room that the dinner party was taking place in.

"Sorry we're so late daddy. Traffic was a nightmare," I explained once my father was in view. Out of habit, there was a smile on my face, despite my previous fluke from earlier, because I knew that at these kinds of dinner meetings I needed to be on my best behavior and make sure that I didn't do anything that would make my father look bad. Not that I really had to worry about that. I was well behaved, of course, nearly ninety-nine percent of the time.

"Courtney darling, so glad you arrived. Where's Bridgette?" my father asked as he smiled at me. I turned my head to look for said girl when she went rushing past me and into my father's arms for a hug. I couldn't help but smile as they said hello, watching my father's face light up as he took in Bridgette's smile. Since Bridgette's father died almost six years ago, daddy has taken her in as one of his own. Jealousy and other childish feelings were overlooked whenever this happens since Bridgette has always been like a sister to me.

While they were talking, I scanned the room for Duncan, spotting him not far behind my father. I couldn't help but smile as I took in how nice and clean cut he looked. Granted the green was still in his hair, but it was combed back and not sticking straight up in his usual Mohawk. I was actually kinda shocked to see that Duncan had removed his piercing and instead of scowling, he looked a little indifferent. I wasn't expecting a complete 360 from Duncan, but the 54 he did was definitely an improvement. I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding in upon seeing that Duncan's 'improvement' might be the single fact needed to prove that tonight's dinner won't go so badly after all.

Duncan looked over in my direction and I felt a blush spread over my cheeks as his e yes scanned over my form. Honestly I was glad that he liked the way I looked tonight; it wasn't as if I hadn't take pains to look this nice. I was going to greet him when he spoke –clearly not to me– and my smile fell, replaced with a grimace.

"Bridgette?" Of course, how typical. Just totally look past me and instead at the skinny blonde. I blew a stray piece of my bangs out of my face and crossed my arms in an aggravated manner.

_What else would I expect from an ogre?_

"Duncan? Oh my gosh! I never thought it was _you _Courtney was telling me 'saved' her! But I guess the description of brute and ogre works pretty well," Bridgette said, laughing. Duncan looked over at me and I quickly turned my attention to Bridgette, shooting her a glare, unaware of my blush.

"Brute and ogre, eh? Well remind me next time to leave her behind," Duncan joked to Bridgette before hugging her. As they embraced, I couldn't help but feel my smile falter as I took a small step back from the pair. "I haven't seen you with Geoff for a while, where've you been hiding?"

_Wait… Geoff?_

"I haven't been hiding Duncan, it's called some people actually have responsibilities," Bridgette teased and I couldn't help but giggle as Duncan rolled his eyes. Everyone around us began to sit down so we moved to our seats as well; Bridgette and I next to each other with Duncan across from us.

"How do you two know each other?" I asked, wanting to know just how _close _they were and what Geoff had to do with any of this.

"You remember Geoff, right?" Duncan asked me.

_Of course idiot, I was just with him today. _I thought, internally rolling my eyes while on the outside I just nodded. Can't show any signs of misbehavior, especially not in this setting.

"Well Bridgette is his girlfriend," Duncan explained and I felt a wave of relief wash over me.

_What? Relief? More like despair because that means the ogre can hit on me without feeling a conscious of cheating. If he even has a conscious. _I thought viciously, mumbling an 'oh' as my thoughts swallowed me and dinner was served.

Conversation died down for a while as people began to eat. At the head of the table, where my father sat, there was some hushed conversation about some business deal or another but other than that it was pretty silent as everyone enjoyed the delicious food. The waiters moved gracefully and silently around the room, refilling drinks where needed and whispering 'you're welcome's to the people that thanked them.

One waiter came around Duncan's side of the table and stopped at said man's seat, reaching forward and refilling his nearly empty water glass. Duncan said nothing to the waiter who stayed for a moment before finally mumbling a 'welcome' and leaving as Duncan simply grunted. My bottom jaw fell slightly as I stared across the table at Duncan, completely appalled. Wasn't he raised with some form of table etiquette? Or did he grow up in a barn?

"Would it kill you to say thank you once in a while?" I hissed to Duncan, shooting him a look while fighting the urge to kick him under the table. Duncan stared at me for a moment before also shooting me a look as he replied.

"Would it kill you to be not so uptight all the time?"

My eyes widened as I clutched my fork tighter. "I am _not _up tight!" It wasn't until after I had spoken that I realized how loud I was compared to the rest of the conversations at the table. A blush spread over my face and chest as people looked over at me oddly, and I lowed my gaze in embarrassment. "And besides," I continued in much quieter voice, "manners are important because they don't make you seem like a barbarian such as yourself." There was slight venom in my words, but I didn't feel bad at all about it because I was tired of Duncan's rudeness.

"Can't you just pull the stick out of your ass and live a little without being so proper?" Duncan asked as he rolled his eyes and sat back in his seat.

"There is _nothing _wrong with being proper and besides, I have an image to uphold even if I haven't been here in awhile," I explained, shooting a quick glance over at my father, smiling at him when he caught my gaze. When I returned my attention to Duncan, I noticed that his back was stiff and there was a look in his eyes that made me think of both someone who was about to be ill and someone who was ready to kill.

"You okay Duncan?" I asked unsurely, wondering if my words really had affected him in some way or another.

"Yeah, just _perfect_," he said, a bitterness in his words that made me flinch as Bridgette and my father looked over at him as well. "I'm going to use the restroom. I'll uh, be back," Duncan muttered before standing and all be fleeing from the dinning room. There was an awkward moment of silence before my father cleared his throat and started up a conversation again. Everyone else soon continued their conversations as well but I just placed my hands in my lap, lowering my head as I felt my eyes heat up with the threat of tears.

_You're being stupid Courtney! He's just a delinquent that helped you out! You don't owe him these emotions and he sure as heck doesn't deserve them! _My subconscious told me and I blinked hard as the words mounted up. So wrapped up in my own thoughts, I was startled when a hand was placed on my forearm and I looked up to see Bridgette smiling at me softly. Unable to speak because I was afraid I would stutter or choke up on my words, I nodded and smiled weakly as my friend, thankful for the comfort.

Duncan came back into the dinning room a few minutes later and the first thing I noticed was that his hands were slightly pink and that he didn't look pleased at all. "What happened to your hands Duncan?" I asked him hesitantly and he looked up at me before shoving his hands into his pockets and sitting back down.

"I turned the water on too hot," he mumbled, not meeting my eyes as he spoke to me. Bridgette's grip on my forearm tightened for a moment, acting like a reminder as to where we were and that now was not the time to play twenty questions.

"Oh, alright," I finally said before I took a sip of my ice tea to keep from saying anything else. I thought I felt Duncan's eyes on me as I stared down at the table for the remainder of dinner, but whenever I looked up he was looking no where near me so I thought for sure that I was simply going crazy. Bridgette tried to engage me in conversation, but I just couldn't put my heart in it and she eventually gave up trying to talk to me though she never removed her hand from my arm. It sounds kinda silly, but I think it was Bridgette that kept me strong during dinner when I wanted to just break down all because of some stupid ogre.

_oo-oo-oo_

"Dinner was a very good idea Mr. Cliena, and I'll be sure to have my secretary call and make an appointment so that we can close this deal."

I stood off to the side and smiled and shook hands with the men as they left, telling them it was nice to see them again when I didn't even know their names. One man leaving looked to be around my age if not a couple years older and he gingerly kissed my knuckles as he bid me a goodnight. Once he was through the door Bridgette was elbowing me gently with a huge grin across her face. I immediately recognized the look she was giving me and knew it would only be a matter of time before she launched into her 'boy-crazy' mode.

"Oo Courtney! He _totally _has the hots for you and is totally _gorgeous_!" she cheered and I couldn't help but smile, a blush still spreading across my cheeks almost as if out of habit.

"I know," I finally agreed, my blush intensifying as I followed the man leave. I couldn't help but let my eyes trail down to the wonderfully firm backside and I only blushed harder as Bridgette followed my gaze and started laughing.

"What's so funny?" Duncan asked, standing next to Bridgette. I looked up at him and for a moment our eyes met before he quickly put them back on Bridgette and I felt my smile drop.

"Courtney totally has the hots for a fine ass man, and when I say fine ass, I _mean _it," Bridgette said and my blush was back as I shot her a look. Didn't she have a boyfriend or something? "Wouldn't you agree Courtney? I totally saw you checking out his delicious ass," she said and my jaw dropped in disbelief that she would say something like that. "You know, I'm sure if you caught up with him and pushed your cleavage together a little he'd let you smack it."

That's when I just about died.

Well actually I only fainted, but when I woke up I certainly wished that I was dead because leaning over me on one side was Duncan while on the other side was the hottie that had kissed my hand. Behind Duncan was Bridgette with a smile on her face while behind the mystery guy was my dad, concern laced into his features.

"You okay Princess?" Duncan asked and I shot him a look for using my 'pet name' in front of Mr. Dateable. I was going to give a retort when Bridgette spoke up and I almost fainted again.

"You might wanna fix your dress before you give these old guys a heart attack."

Looking down, I saw exactly what she was talking about since my dress had ridden up to the point where it barely covered my underwear. A squeak escaped my lips as I quickly shot up and pulled down my dress, feeling light headed from standing up so quickly and from all the blood that was rushing to my face as I blushed so hard that I'm sure I looked like a tomato by now.

"Careful. You shouldn't stand up so quickly. It could cause you to faint again." It was the mystery man that spoke, his voice rich and, kinda like the color of his skin, smooth like melted chocolate.

"How do you know?" Duncan snapped and I shot him a look. Mystery man smiled slightly and while most men would probably straighten their posture when defending themselves, his posture was already perfect so there was no need. Who was this Mr. Perfect, and where has he been all my life?

"I'm a doctor," he said and I heard Bridgette squeal from behind me as well as the clicking of her heels as she most likely jumped up and down in joy. Beside me, Duncan huffed and crossed his arms and I shot him a look before turning both my attention and my body towards Dr. Dreamy.

"Thank you uh…," I trailed off, not sure what to call him.

"Ethan Adams," he quickly told me and I melted again, recognizing the last name.

_He's a doctor, has great looks, comes from a nice family, and is loaded with money. Is there anything this guy doesn't have? _

"Well thank you Ethan for the advice but I think I'm good now." Of course though I haven't tried walking yet. That could be a whole other challenge on its own. "I guess I drank a little too much wine," I lied with a shy smile, knowing that I had nothing to drink all evening except for iced tea. If Ethan knew this, he didn't let onto it as he smiled warmly at me and my insides turned to putty.

"My ass," Duncan muttered and I spun around to glare at him.

"Is this your date?" Ethan asked and I couldn't stop the reaction before it was done; wrinkling my nose in disgust as I scoffed.

"Of course not," I quickly said and knew right away that I had made a mistake with my reaction before I could hear Duncan's quick intake of breath from behind me. "I don't know if you heard, but I was in a bit of trouble a couple of nights ago. This is Duncan Hall, the man that, well, saved my life," I explained to Ethan almost as quickly as I had denied Duncan earlier.

"Well then Duncan I guess I'm in your debt because if it weren't for you helping Courtney I might have never had the chance to ask her out for dinner." My jaw dropped as I caught onto the smoothly implied meaning behind Ethan's words as he turned his attention back to me. "Would you like to join me for dinner next week without the old guys this time?"

Behind me, Bridgette squealed once again as I blushed. "That would be very nice," I finally managed to say, blushing harder when I heard the slight stutter in my words.

"I'll call you soon then, but now I fear I must take my leave because my father is down stairs waiting for me," Ethan said and I couldn't help but feel a little sad. This all changed though when he leaned forward and gently kissed my cheek. "Good night Courtney," Ethan said with a smile and I had to bite my tongue to keep from fainting again. He even acknowledged Bridgette and Duncan and my father, who I didn't even know had been around, before he left and once he was gone I staggered back a bit in my heels and ended up colliding with Duncan's hard chest.

"Oh my _God _Courtney! Is he perfect or what?!" Bridgette squealed and I couldn't help but let out a happy cheer as well as my spin spread from ear to ear. "Don't you agree Duncan?" she then asked and I turned to said man, waiting for his reply. Stiffly, he nodded, hands in his pockets as he stared down at his shoes.

"Yeah, perfect," Duncan mumbled. Satisfied with his reply, I turned back to Bridgette to gush about Ethan, totally unaware of Duncan's sad eyes on my back.

_oo-oo-oo_

First and foremost, I wanna give a **huge **thank you to my wonderful beta edwardandbella4evah for getting this chapter back to me so quickly so I could present it to my lovely public. I know it's been _way _too long since I last updated this story, but I'm getting back in the rhythm of writing now so hopefully all of my updating will be changing for the better. Other good news is that I'm working on a new story with edwardandbella4evah and it's going to be an TDI CourtneyxDuncan story that's even hotter than this one and I hope to get it posted on fanfiction sometime this summer so be on the look out for that!

Thanks for the reviews which I'm sure I don't deserve because of my crappy updating skills. Please review again because as cliché as it sounds, getting reviews actually does make me update faster. I won't hold out of I don't get any reviews, it'd just be nice, you know?

_Kattie _


	10. Late Night Visitor

The whole rest of dinner was spent with Princess making sad faces at her ice tea while I sat stiff as a rod in my seat, _glaring _down at my plate of pushed around food. Everyone else at the table seemed to be fine as the old guys went on talking and drinking their insanely over-priced wine. If I only I could've had a sip of that stuff… but, of course, it would be wrong to ask for in this situation.

I honestly thought that they could have kept talking business all night until finally the bill was paid for and everyone started to leave. I was probably one of the last people to leave the room, my feet moving on autopilot as my eyes stayed on Courtney as she shook the hands of men leaving. There was one in particular that made my blood boil, watching as a guy probably around my age gently kissed Princess' hand before flashing a perfectly white smile and leaving. My stomach knotted as my gaze followed him, uneasy feelings settling in my stomach that I couldn't quiet understand.

I glared at his back as he walked over, my eyes narrowing more when I heard Bridgette laughing as Courtney turned pink. "What's so funny?" I asked after walking over to the girls. Courtney looked up at me and our eyes met as she blushed harder; probably embarrassed about being caught gawking at her mystery man. I quickly looked over at Bridgette instead, catching the way Princess' smile dropped slightly.

"Courtney totally has the hots for a fine ass man, and when I say fine ass, I _mean _it," Bridgette said to me, answering my previous question. My reaction to hearing this, eyes narrowing slightly and hands fisting within my pockets, actually shocked me with how violent it was. I mean, really, I shouldn't even care about any of this, or Princess for that matter. "Wouldn't you agree Courtney?" Bridgette went on as if everything was fine, and my gaze shifted to Courtney so I could read her expressions; clearly flustered and embarrassed. "I totally saw you checking out his delicious ass. You know, I'm sure if you caught up with him and pushed your cleavage together a little he'd let you smack it," Bridgette spoke unbashfully with a coy smile on her lips, hinting no shame whatsoever.

Courtney's jaw dropped after Bridgette's statement while my jaw did the exact opposite, clenching so tightly that it made my teeth ache. In the midst of my anger, I didn't realize what had happened until Bridgette screamed and there was a thud on the ground.

"Shit," I swore, quickly dropping down on my knees next to where Courtney had fainted. People started rushing back and I didn't even realize one of them was the hand kissing jerk until he was kneeled down on the other side of Courtney, looking pale despite his dark skin.

"You okay Princess?" I asked when she started to come around, slowly blinking her eyes before narrowing them at me.

"You might wanna fix your dress before you give these old guys a heart attack," Bridgette pointed out from behind me and I quickly looked at Courtney, noting how her dress had ridden up so much that I'm sure if I was standing by her feet I'd be able to see her underwear. I couldn't keep the smirk off my lips as Princess made a noise like that of a mouse before jumping to her feet and yanking the dress back down her legs.

"Careful. You shouldn't stand up so quickly. It could cause you to faint again."

_Is this guy for real? _

"How do you know?" I quickly asked, probably adding more bite to my words than necessary. Princess shot me a look while the prick just smiled at me.

"I'm a doctor," he said coolly before Bridgette squealed and I crossed my arms with a huff. A doctor, huh? My ass this guy was a legit doctor. Princess shot me another look before she turned her attention towards the oh so _perfect _mystery doctor, thanking him while at the same time coyly asking his name. She wasn't as innocent as she claimed to be. No, she knew _exactly _what she was doing.

"Ethan Adams," Mr. 'tall dark and hansom' told Courtney and I felt my back stiffen upon recognizing his last name. It makes sense that Ethan here would be the son of a total asshole.

"Well thank you Ethan for the advice but I think I'm good now," Courtney said, politely dismissing him. I couldn't help but grin a little at this, having to hold back laughter as she fed him some excuse about how she drank too much wine and that was why she fainted.

"My ass," I muttered, coughing after and feigning innocence as Princess shot me yet another one of her never ending looks.

"Is this your date?" Ethan asked suddenly, turning the attention to me. Courtney scoffed as she shot me a look, turning her attention back to Ethan.

"Of course not," she said much too quickly and I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut. Lamely, Courtney tried to make up for it by instead introducing me as the guy that saved her but the sting was still there and I felt like crawling into a hole and staying there for a while. I know that I'm not the greatest guy and that I don't make first impressions that well, but there's really no need to throw me under the bus after spitting on me.

"Well then Duncan, I guess I'm in your debt because if it weren't for you helping Courtney I might have never had the chance to ask her out for dinner," Ethan said to me and I felt my jaw tighten to the point where I thought my teeth would start cracking. This asshole was using me as a way to ask out Courtney! My senses are never wrong because I _knew _there was something off about this piece of work.

"That would be very nice," Princess said, blushing as Bridgette jumped around behind her like a crazy person. I felt my shoulders slump as I realized what Courtney had just agreed to; the smirk on the jackass' face telling me she'd just agreed to go on a date with him. My body felt unnaturally numb, almost like when I get into fights except I have a feeling that when I come out of this numbness the wounds will hurt so much more than they ever could after a physical fight.

"Oh my _God _Courtney! Is he perfect or what?" Bridgette squealed after Ethan had left before turning to me and asking if I agreed.

_No, I don't agree at all. He's scum and just wants to get into Courtney's pants. I'm sure that before this night he'd never thought of Courtney as anything more than a spoiled girl with a rich daddy. Now he thinks of her as a spoiled dumb girl for having a crush on him with a nice body he'd like to get in and the fact that her dad is rich just tops off the whole god damn package!_

"Yeah, perfect."

_00-00-00_

Tom offered me a ride back to their penthouse and as much as I wanted to deny it since Princess and Bridgette were driving home with him as well and no doubt would be gushing about Ethan the whole time, my ride and regular clothes were back at his place so I really had no choice in the matter. At least I was able to ride closer to the driver of the limo with Tom so that I didn't have to be stuck right next to the two girls. Nope, now I get to hear what they're talking about in echoes.

"So what'd you think of dinner?" Mr. Cliena asked me, breaking my attention away from Princess who was smiling so much it almost looked painful.

"I think that ordering Chinese and eating at home is a hell of a lot easier and not nearly as stressful or expensive," I muttered, running a hand through my combed down mohawk and doing a fabulous job of messing up any neatness that was there before.

"Ha, you look like you could use a beer," the man across from me said before reaching into a cooler that I hadn't even noticed next to him, and pulling out two beers. He handed one to me and I took it gratefully; twisting off the cap and chugging down a good portion of it in one gulp.

"Thanks," I said, actually meaning it too. The whole time I was stuck in that back room with all the rich guys, I just wanted to disappear with the help of beer and, if I could manage to steal it, some good vodka too.

"I was the same way at your age after my first forced dinner party with my father. I don't think I've gotten that drunk since," Tom admitted to me and I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, wondering why he was telling me this.

"You were born and raised into this fancy shit; shouldn't a business dinner have been like second nature for you?" I asked, swirling what little was left of my beer in the bottom of its bottle.

"Yes, I did have the advantage of knowing which fork to use first, but that didn't make me any less nervous. As I'm sure you found out tonight, these high class men can be very judgmental and show no pity for someone who isn't 'one of them'. I felt sick the whole dinner and ended up slipping up during the meal. Now that was bad; my father chewed me out a lot for that one. Gosh, you should have seen Courtney the first time I took her to one of these. She actually threw up before we left and when we got back she wouldn't stop talking about all the things she should have done differently and how much she messed up. She was only fourteen," Mr. Cliena told me, trailing off towards the end as I assumed he started reminiscing about his past.

"It's not like I'm not grateful for you taking me out to dinner and getting to experience what it's like to be rich for one night, but why? Why go through all the trouble if you'll never be seeing me again?" Finally I asked the question that had been on my mind all night. I actually felt better after getting it out there, but at the same time sick from worrying about what his reply would be.

"Duncan, you saved my daughter's life; I would give you my whole life's savings if you asked for it. As for why I insisted you come to dinner instead of just writing you a check and sending you off, it's because I like you Duncan. You're different and fresh and not egotistical like all of those guys that Courtney grew up around. While it's upsetting that you probably haven't heard this from a lot of fathers, I actually want you to be around my daughter; she could use a different kind of influence in her life than that of a bunch of old rich guys," he explained, chuckling when he was done. Although I was pleasantly surprised with this answer, I couldn't help but remain slightly repulsed as well by the back handed compliment.

"Right, because you want Princess to not be so much of a princess by making her hang out with a poor and dingy guy like me. It all makes perfect sense now," I bit out, unable to keep the resentment from my voice. Tom merely sighed and leaned back in his seat, folding his hands in his lap.

"If you want it to be like that, then sure. Duncan, every day people are told who they are by the judgments of others and eventually they just become what they've been told they are. I fear that Courtney is starting to become that way and loosing sight of who she really is on the inside, and I know that I'm the main cause of this. I'd like you to stay around so that Courtney doesn't loose sight of who she is because from what she's told me of you, you do a fine job of bringing out the best in her." My eyes flickered over to Courtney who was still in the back talking with Bridgette. Even though I could tell she was tired by the way her smile had fallen slightly and she blinked slower, Princess was still glowing.

"There's a car show tomorrow that I have two tickets for, but I doubt Courtney will care to join me especially since Bridgette is around again. Wanna go with me and see some of the most expensive and jaw dropping cars on the planet?" Mr. Cliena offered and I felt my mouth begin to water at the thought. If there was one thing I loved, it was cars.

"How does this tie in with me bugging Princess?" I asked, leaning back against my seat.

"You're a planner, I like that Duncan. If Starbucks doesn't work out, I think I have a place in my business where I could use a guy like you," Tom said casually before switching back to the cars. "Just stop by tomorrow around nine thirty and I'll make sure the front desk knows to let you up." The limo came to a stop and both our door and a door closer to the back by Bridgette and Princess opened up simultaneously.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," I accepted, standing by the limo with Mr. Cliena. He smiled fondly at me before sticking out his hand. I shook it, surprised by how strong his grip was but I guess it's from years or practice.

"Make sure when you come over, you bring your car with you. I think I have something in the garage that could really help bring out its beauty," the older man kindly offered with a wink and I couldn't help but grin like an idiot.

"Thanks," I said after releasing his hand.

"Anytime son. Now get home and rest up; tomorrow is going to be a long day," Mr. Cliena warned and I nodded, walking towards my car. It occurred to me, as I was driving off, that I never said bye to Princess or Bridgette.

_Probably too busy talking about Ethan. _I figured, a scowl setting onto my face for nearly the fiftieth time tonight. As much as I just wanted to pull out some beers and sit on the couch for a while, I knew that it probably was going to be a really long day tomorrow and there was no way I was going to ruin a minute of that car show by having a hangover.

_Getting shit-faced will just have to wait until tomorrow night._

_00-00-00_

"Are you serious?"

I let out a huff of air as I rubbed my temples, cringing from the headache that was accumulating while trying not to jump across the coffee table and tackle DJ. "How many times do I have to say it? Yes, the room was bigger than my apartment and yes, her dad is taking me to a car show. Now unless you have a something really important to talk to me about, I'm going to bed," I declared, standing from my spot on the couch. I reached behind me to pick up the tuxedo jacket that I had slung over the couch before Geoff and DJ had come out to play twenty questions with me.

"So Bridge was there tonight?" Geoff asked me again.

"Yes, Malibu Barbie was there. From what it seems like, her and Princess and have friends for a long time. Why does it matter?" I snapped, turning around afterwards and noticing the dejected look on the blonde's face.

"She said she was going to be out of town for the next week," he mumbled sadly and I felt my face soften as I realized what this meant.

"Man, she probably just said that so that she could hang out with Princess without having to flat out tell you she'd rather be spending time with someone else." I wanted to slap myself in the forehead after saying that.

"She was probably just trying to protect you Geoff," DJ quickly said, helping me clean up the mess I had started. I shot him a thankful look which he just nodded at, returning his attention to Geoff.

"Guys I really need to hit the hay or I'll be a zombie tomorrow. You guys can crash here or head home; either way just make sure you lock the front door. I don't know what time I'll be back tomorrow, but if I get an estimate I'll call one of you and let you know so that you can come over and play twenty questions again." And with that said, I retreated back to my room and my awaiting bed; a lazy smile appearing on my lips when I saw it. The annoying tux was barely off before I flopped forward onto my bed and groaned; falling asleep shortly after.

_00-00-00_

I woke early in the morning, having shot up in my bed covered in a film of sweat and shaking. Trying to calm myself by taking in deep breaths, I ran my hand through my messed up Mohawk only to recoil in disgust when my hand came back covered in sweat.

"Christ," I whispered, swinging my legs over the side of my bed as I rested my head in my hands. My forehead was also covered in sweat which just made me feel all the more disgusted, but I just ignored it as I tried to push the thoughts of my dream out of my mind.

_Go away, go away. _I chanted, practically ripping out my hair as I tried to push out the images.

_Blood. Blood on the floor. Blood on the walls. Blood on the knife. Blood on my hands. _

"Oh God," I moaned before racing out of my bedroom and into the bathroom down the hall, barely making it before I started throwing up. When I thought I was done, I flushed down the expensive meal I had had for dinner and fell onto my side; the cool tile of the bathroom soothing my pounding head. I honestly have no idea how long I laid on my bathroom floor, eventually starting to shake from the cold but too exhausted to get up and go back to bed. It occurred to me then that Geoff and DJ had left because if not they surely would have been in here by now, asking me what was wrong. While they know what happened in my past, the true reason I went to juvy, I didn't want to have to relive it even if it was only through mentioning it.

Just seeing the images in my head was bad enough. Hearing the sounds of her screams; the sounds of _his _screams. Eventually none of that mattered though as it was drowned out by the sound of my own screams; screaming and sobbing and wishing I could stop but not being able to. The way my arm jerked as I raised it above my head, eventually causing me to dislocate it. Yes still I continued; screaming.

I threw up again, slumping against the sink when I was finished; too exhausted to even flush down the rancid smell. The taste of it should have been in my mouth too, but all I could taste was blood as the memories kept pressing into my mind. Eventually, I just gave up and let them come; silently sobbing myself into an uneasy and tortured sleep.

_00-00-00_

When I woke up again, the sun was just starting to rise and the bathroom smell alone almost made me throw up again. I flushed down my old vomit and slowly made my way out of the bathroom after rinsing out my mouth with some Listerine. As I was walking towards the kitchen so that I could get some food in my stomach, I passed by my hall way mirror and winced. It's safe to say that I had seen some better days; my hair mattered together and greasy looking with heavy bags under my eyes. Over all I appeared pale, but it also didn't really help that there were no lights on; the lack of it only intensifying the shadowed horror on my face.

_Food. Just eat some good and things will start getting better. _I tried to assure myself, pushing on past the mirror and into the kitchen. As I walked in, flashes of blood covered walls and floor danced before my eyes and I found myself letting out a choked cry as I nearly fell to the floor.

_Why? Why are these memories coming back _now_? _I wondered, relieved that when I opened my eyes again the blood was gone and instead I saw my plain and empty kitchen. There was no blender or coffee maker, no cookie jar or basket of fruit; just my plain old kitchen which I had never been so happy to see before in my life. As happy as it made me though, the thought of food still didn't excite me, but I forced myself to eat. Today was going to be a long day and I had a feeling I was going to need all the energy I could get. Seeing as I was already so _rested_, it only made sense that I get in a good meal as well.

"Toast sounds good," I muttered, turning towards my cabinets. There were just a couple of pieces left and as they were in the toaster I added bread to the list. If the dream I had hours before was anything like the dream I had years before, I'd be having toast for breakfast a lot over the new few weeks. Of course, just some toast with butter isn't exactly the tastiest thing to eat, or the most filling, but at the moment it was all my stomach could handle and it would just have to do until I started to forget about the dream around lunch time. That's when I'll have my big meal which will hold me over until dinner which I'll have very little of; it makes for less to throw up, after all.

"Great, it's only 7:30," I groaned, dropping my head down onto the kitchen table which wasn't really as good of an idea as it originally seemed; my head starting to pound. From where my head rested, I got the chance to really _smell _myself and nearly gagged; shooting back from the table with a look of disgust on my face.

_Shower. Get the smell off, get the memory off. Shower. _My mind reasoned and I quickly headed back towards the bathroom, glad that I had been able to make it to the toilet or I'd be cleaning up one hell of a mess right now. As I stripped out of my clothes (which also reeked of dried sweat), I noticed how sore I was from sleeping in the bathroom. I made a mental note that in the future I should at least sleep in the bathtub; much more comfortable than the sink or floor.

"Aw," I sighed, leaning my head back into the spray of warm water as it soothed my headache. The water was soon running all along my body, warming me to the bone and getting rid of the chill that had been there before. For a good ten minutes, all I did was just stand under the water, rotating my neck and rubbing out the knots in it as I slouched against the shower wall.

By the time I finally got out of the shower after feeling that I had scrubbed and shampooed enough to get rid of the smell, the clock read that it was a few minutes past eight. Glad that I had found a way to at least waste some time, I quickly dried off and dressed into a pair of dark blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I didn't feel like getting dressed up or anything, the only splash of color in my outfit that of my green hair and red Converse that I never went without. I even contemplated not putting in my piercings, but finally decided for it since it would just kill more time before heading over to Courtney's place.

_Hmm, going to Courtney's place. _The thought left a funny feeling in my stomach, like my guts were being twisted up but not in a horribly painful way. I honestly couldn't really find a way to describe it and instead just checked to make sure I had everything before leaving my apartment. As I was driving down the streets, I realized that it was probably a good thing that I had left so early because I made a couple of wrong turns and had to go around unnecessary blocks just to get back on the right path. To say that I was happy when I reached Courtney's penthouse building, or whatever the hell she wanted to call her place, would be an understatement. I actually felt in higher spirits as I went up to the front desk and told the woman who I was; her checking my I.D. before letting me go up to like the very freakin' top floor.

"Uh hello?" I asked, knocking on their 'front' door. "Mr. Cliena? Courtney?" I called out, continuing to knock. Eventually I heard footsteps and stopped my knocking, stepping back from the door and stuffing my hands into my pockets as I waited for the doors to be opened.

"Duncan! Well you're here a bit earlier than I expected, but more than welcome. Come in," Mr. Cliena greeted me, his smile warm and welcoming. I wanted to return the smile, but when I looked at the older man all I saw was splattered blood and it made a chill run down my spine as I quickly looked away.

"I still have to get ready and the show doesn't actually start until noon, so just make yourself at home," Mr. Cliena told me, already walking towards the kitchen. I didn't know what else to do, so I just followed after him; settling for sitting down at one of the stools around the island in the kitchen. "Want some breakfast? Coffee?" the man offered and I had to bite back a groan at the thought of food. Along with the thought of food came the memory of the nasty bile I'd upchucked earlier, so it's safe to say that I won't be eating much today.

"Uh just some coffee please, black," I quickly said before he could go around taking out all of these differently creams only to have to put them away again. I actually preferred my coffee with a bit of vanilla creamer in it because it adds some damn good flavor, but I didn't want to trouble Mr. Cliena since he was already doing so much for me, so I just took it black.

"Thank you Mr. Cliena," I said as I took the coffee, sipping from it and feeling at ease. If there was one thing that always managed to make me feel better, it was coffee. Why else would I work at Starbucks? Well… aside from the fact that they don't care about my criminal record, that is.

"Hey, this is supposed to be a fun day. Just call me Tom," the man reminded me before saying something about having to go get ready and that I should help myself to any food and the TV while I waited. While food was definitely the furthest thing from my mind, TV didn't sound that bad and I made my way over to their living room (which was honestly the size of my kitchen room and living room put together and then some) and sat myself down at the end of the white leather couch.

_Shit, this guy is loaded! _I thought, examining all the entertainment systems he had as well as all the movies and CDs; both classic and new lining the walls on shelves. It took a bit of hunting, but I eventually found the TV remote and was able to find the news. Despite being an over all 'loser', I actually watched the news almost every chance I got. If I had a therapist (ha, like I could _afford _one), they'd probably tell me that I watch the news so that I can see other people's suffering and feel better about myself or some shit like that. Well too bad for my imaginary therapist because today there wasn't a whole lot of interesting stuff on the news. No, the interesting stuff had just walked into the living room.

"Well well Princess. If I knew I would get this kind of show every time I came over, I'd have to move closer so that I can be here earlier," I teased, smirking as Courtney's eyes went wide before blush covered her face and she quickly crossed her arms over her chest.

"Duncan? What are _you _doing here?" she demanded, not nearly as pleased to see me as I was to see her. But then again, I guess no one is really happy to see the person that torments them.

_Blood. _

"I'm going to a car show with your dad today. He said I should stop by early so that I could see you before we go; something about loving me so much that he wanted to make me part of the family by getting you to marry me," I said casually, sipping from my coffee as Courtney started sputtering; her eyes wider than before.

"You're lying," she finally hissed, coming to her common sense, and had my hands not been holding my coffee mug, I would have congratulated her with applause.

"Well it's safe to say who here just woke up," I pointed out and Princess just huffed before heading into the kitchen. Seeing as the news was boring this morning and Courtney was just so much _fun _to get all riled up, I followed her into the kitchen and sat down at my previous seat.

"Dream of me last night, Princess?" I asked, watching her over the rim of my mug as I continued to drink the caffeine.

"Please, as if," she muttered. It was then that Princess bent over to get out of the fridge and I almost fell out of my stool as I noticed just how short her shorts really were.

"Are you wearing a thong Princess? Or maybe no panties at all?" I asked and Courtney spun around, her face red as a tomato as she quickly started pulling down her deliciously short shorts. Too late though, the damage was already done. "Either way Princess, I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight," I added with a wink.

_Blood on my hands. _

"You barbarian!" Courtney shrieked and I got the feeling that if looks could kill, I'd be six feet under right now. It was while I was studying Princess that I noticed something very, very interesting. A smirk came to my lips even as Princess continued to go on and on about how I was a pig and all that other stuff.

"Are you not wearing a bra Courtney?"

The kitchen fell deathly silent, to the point where if a pin dropped I'm sure the people in the rooms below us would hear it hit. I should have realized that that was just the calm before the storm and that I would soon be in a world of trouble.

"You-you-you," Courtney continued to stutter and I just smirked, sipping more of my coffee.

"Are you going to actually finish that sentence? I thought Princesses were always supposed to be perfectly articulate," I taunted and that seemed to be the final straw as Courtney's head all but blew off in a string of savage names and even some swear words. She went on ranting, pacing back and forth and getting dangerously close to me.

"You've got quiet a mouth on you Princess, I'd love to put it to some real use," I said, letting my eyes scan lazily over her barely clothed figure as Courtney just stared at me; wide eyed and mouth open like a fish.

"_Daddy!_" she screamed, making me wince as my head ache flared up again. There was a pause and just when I was sure she was going to scream again, Mr. Cliena came walking casually into the kitchen. He had his tie in his hands and shirt not all the way buttoned up, looking completely at ease. If someone had walked into this kitchen, they certainly would have been very confused about just what the hell was going on. There's Courtney, looking like she's about to kill in her shorts and perky breast; me sipping on coffee smirking; and then Mr. Cliena who reminded me oddly of that guy in that one prostitute movie, looking suave and at ease yet still in control of the whole situation. Yup, we were indeed a very confusing trio at the moment.

"What's with all the yelling?" A fourth voice mumbled, walking slowly into the kitchen while rubbing her blue eyes. I turned around in my stool and smiled upon seeing Bridgette. She too was dressed in shorts and a tang top, but she was also Geoff girlfriend, my long time friend, and wearing a bra so I felt no need to poke fun at her.

"Hey Bridge," I greeted her, sipping from my coffee mug as she took the time to wake up and finally realize who I was.

"Duncan? Why are you here?" she asked, covering her mouth with her hand as she let out a yawn.

"Would you like some coffee Bridgette?" Mr. Cliena offered. Yup, he's definitely that rich guy from the prostitute move… just black.

"Oh yeah, sure Tom; thanks," Bridgette mumbled back, still half way asleep. As Mr. Cliena went about making Bridgette's coffee, Courtney just continued to stand there in I think some kind of disgusted awe. This just made me smirk more as I looked over at her, eyed her breasts, and then winked. Hey, Mr. Cliena said that I should remind Courtney of who she truly is and right now I'm reminding her that she is in fact a female and that she should really not flaunt around her 'lovely lady lumps' if she didn't want people commenting.

"Oh yes, Courtney, you called for me?" Mr. Cliena finally acknowledged his daughter after handing Bridgette her coffee. She took it with a quiet thanks and sat down at the island next to me. I would have struck up a conversation with Bridgette, since it was only _polite _and all, but right now I was watching Princess to see how everything would play out.

I thought for sure that she was going to tell her father about me down right checking her out which I honestly hadn't considered her doing until after seeing her murderous gaze. It'd be a good way to get back at me since he'd probably not take me to the car show after learning about my non-innocent hints towards his only daughter. Just as I was preparing to explain myself, Courtney closed her mouth and shook her head.

"I just wanted to know where you were because I didn't have the chance to say good morning to you yet," she said, shocking me with how naturally she was able to lie. Hmm, I'll have to investigate that talent of hers further. Courtney walked over to her father, kissing his cheek as she told him good morning. "I'll be right back," I managed to pick up before Princess left the kitchen and headed down the hall.

"Well, if there are no pressing matters to attend to, I'll be returning shortly as well," Mr. Cliena said before excusing himself and leaving the kitchen as well. Now it was just Bridgette and I, sitting in silence and drinking our coffee.

"So I uh, couldn't help but notice that Courtney wasn't wearing a bra," I said casually, holding back my laughter as Bridgette starting coughing.

"Oh my God Duncan, you are _such_ a pig."

_**00-00-00**_

I swear, I never get _any _sleep because of fanfiction. I hope that you're all happy I updated before two months had passed. I know that I can update quicker and that you'd all like that a helluva lot more, but you'll just have to deal because I do have a life outside of this site (sorry for any crankiness; it's almost 1 in the morning and I didn't get much sleep the night before).

Anyway! Thank you for all the reviews and thank you to my wonderful beta _edwardandbella4evah_; you're amazing for getting this chapter back to me and in such clean shape! Um… I don't really have a lot more to say except 'and so the plot thickens!' and I'm already pretty much done with chapter 11 so hopefully that'll be coming up shortly too as well as maybe another TDI story all together. Depends how quickly I can get these plot bunnies dancing around in my head to actually stay on paper.

Please review.

_Kattie_


	11. Shiver

By the time we were finally headed for the car to go back home, I was absolutely exhausted. But, of course, this thought didn't even _occur _to Bridgette as she had some burning desire to talk so what other choice did I have but to stay awake and talk with her? I guess I should be glad that she was around to keep me up because Daddy offered Duncan a ride home and the last thing I wanted to do was fall asleep while he was around. The first time it happened, I had a reasonable excuse; being mugged and stabbed is a very exhausting experience and I'm just glad that I didn't black out while still in the culprit's arms. Now if I were to fall asleep around Duncan, I'd really be sending out an invitation to be violated in some way while unconscious.

_It's really only being violated if you don't _like _it, _my subconscious pointed out and I quickly stamped that thought out, body flushing as my brain even considered the mundane possibility. The last thing I would _ever _want is that ogre's hands anywhere on my body, touching my skin, so close that I can feel his warm breath on my neck, so close that I can feel his body press against my-

"Courtney? You still here?" I quickly snapped my head up, looking at Bridgette who had an annoyingly smug look on her face.

"Because the fact that I'm sitting right next to you doesn't answer that question at all," I muttered sarcastically, trying to calm my breathing which had become surprisingly irregular while I was trapped in my thoughts.

_Duncan. _

I looked over at said barbarian, swallowing nervously when I saw the angry look he had on his face.

_Don't say anything to make him leave Daddy. _I thought, wanting to bash my head against the tinted window just to get all of these completely _inaccurate_ and _irresponsible _thoughts out of my head. It'd be a good thing if Duncan left, after all, because then I wouldn't have to constantly be defending myself or on edge and stressed. With that in mind, I tried to mental will my father to do something to make Duncan so angry that he leaves and never comes back… but that didn't work as Duncan's anger quickly disappeared. Now he just looked thoughtful and I couldn't help but scoff.

_Duncan thinking? That's a dangerous pass time. _

"Where is your head tonight Court?" Bridgette demanded and I blinked, looking back over at her. "You've been thinking about Ethan, haven't you?"

"What?" I gasped, my eyes going wide. Bridgette just smirked at my reaction and leaned back in her seat.

"You totally are, the blush says it all," she pointed out and I felt the heat in my cheeks, noticing it only making me blush harder. Bridgette, of course, read my blush the wrong way and just smirked more.

"Wow Courtney, you totally have the hots for Ethan," she teased and I was going to tell her that that wasn't true, but then what would I tell her when she asked for the real reason behind my blush. God I could see it now.

_I'm blushing because I was thinking about that ogre over there drinking beer with my dad. _

Oh yeah, that would go over real well. Better to just sit back and watch this version of my life play out than to interfere and go running head first into the unknown. At least on the Ethan side of this rope there was security and a future. On the opposing Duncan side, nothing was ever guaranteed; not even a future.

"Please Bridge, I just met the guy!" I hissed, still blushing as I turned my attention to the girl sitting across from me; anything as long as it wasn't Duncan. Although I really wasn't sure why I kept avoiding him, it's not like he mattered… right?

"Yeah, so?" she asked indifferently. "Look Courtney, the guy is _hot_ and he has the hots for _you_. Go for it," Bridgette encouraged me and I bit my bottom lip meekly, trying to wrap my mind around everything. Did I really have the 'hots' for Ethan? Or was he just some excuse so I could stop thinking about the guy who intrigued and infuriated me beyond all belief in the front seat?

"Besides, what's the worst that can happen?" she then added and I found myself unable to answer because all I _could _think about was the worst things that could happen because of Ethan. None of those things had the opportunity to be voiced (which is quiet possibly for the best) because at that point the limo pulled up along side the sidewalk and the doors were being opened for us. I thanked my lucky stars briefly that we were finally home and I could get to bed and finish this conversation tomorrow when I was much more alert and coherent.

"Ms. Cliena," the co-driver greeted, extending his hand in an offer to help me out. I accepted and then waited close by for Bridgette to get out as well.

_This is it. The last time I'll probably ever see that brute again. _I thought, looking over at where Duncan stood next to my father. They were still talking, so I waited back patiently for him to come back and say good bye to me, but it never happened. Duncan just shook my father's hand before turning away and walking to his car. I didn't know whether to be grateful, insulted, or just plain old bitter.

_What the heck just happened? _My subconscious demanded to know and the answer came quickly.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing just happened, and that's probably for the best. Out of sight, out of mind; after all. With Duncan gone, my life can go on normally like it would have if I had never met him and that meant that everything could be normal and understandable again.

_Safe. _My mind told me and I was surprised by the bitterness.

_Yes safe. _I internally battled. _Safe because I don't quiet fancy being held at knife point, thank you very much. _I huffed then and Bridgette gave me a weird look that just caused me to blush, wishing that I wasn't currently stuck in an elevator with her so that I could get away from her gaze.

_Yeah but Duncan saved you. He's the one that _made _you safe. _My subconscious countered and I actually opened my mouth in real life as if to throw out a comment, but then closed it knowing that I had nothing to say. My brain was right, as it always is; Duncan did come to my rescue and was the one that kept me safe and alive through the whole ordeal.

_None of that matters now because he's gone and I'll probably never see him again… and even if I did see him again, he probably wouldn't even give me a second look. _

For some odd reason, that thought kinda hurt.

_00-00-00_

_"There are two doors Courtney, and it's up to you to choose one," Bridgette said from beside me, and I turned to look at her with worried eyes. _

_ God! Why did there have to be so many options! _

_ Behind one door, there's Duncan; the barbaric brute that saved my life but then continued to push my buttons to near insanity yet I seem to get _high _off of our banter. _

_ Behind the other door, there's Ethan; the rich gentleman who has only been good to me so far and my daddy (heck, the rest of society too) would accept him much easier. _

_ "So which door are you going to choose Courtney?" Now it was my dad talking to me, standing ahead of me and between the two doors. I moved closer and studied both of them closely, though I didn't dare to touch either incase just touching it was like choosing. There was nothing at all that set the two doors apart that I could use to guess who was behind either door, and I felt sweat begin to roll down the sides of my face when a soft knocking sound was made. I got as close as I dared to each door to try and hear which was the source of the noise, but neither sounded like they were making the noise; it was just echoing around me. _

_ And that echoing grew louder and louder until I was spinning around in circles trying to find out where the noise was coming from while also covering my ears because the sound hurt them. To add to all the joy, Bridgette and Dad were everywhere I looked; chanting for me to pick a door. My throat felt tight as I kept spinning; faster and faster to the point where I felt like I was going to be sick. The noise only grew louder though until it was _inside _of me! God, it was my heart beat!_

_ "I don't know!"_

I bolted up in bed, my hand over my chest; feeling the fast beat of my heart. For a second, I was afraid that my heart was beating like the knocking and I was about to start screaming before I realized that it wasn't my heart, but actual knocking on a door.

_Ugh, what the heck do people want at, _I rolled over to check the time and groaned, _nine in the morning? _

As tired as I was though, I knew that I really should get up so I forced myself out of bed; glaring out at Bridgette as she just kept sleeping peacefully. _I need to get up though, because if I don't I'll just fall back asleep and won't be able to fall asleep tonight until some ungodly hour. _I convinced myself before shooting yet another glare at Bridgette as I remembered how she forced me to stay awake until almost 2:30 in the morning talking about a bunch of useless stuff that I really didn't care about. It's not like I don't like spending time with her and that I'm not glad to see her, I just really would have liked some sleep so that I could pick up conversation again with her in the morning.

_Well now it's morning. _I thought before glancing back over at Bridgette and grimacing slightly.

"I'll just let her keep sleeping," I muttered before heading to my bathroom to brush my teeth and use the restroom. While I was in there, I caught sight of myself in the mirror and winced at how unsightly I was; makeup smeared across my face and the beginning of dark circle starting to form under my eyes, hair matted and tangled from sweat. Since I'd never be caught dead like this, even in my own home, I quickly washed my face and pulled my hair back into a messy bun; feeling more awake and over all better afterwards.

"Much better," I said, smiling at my reflection before blushing when my stomach let out a loud rumble. Placing my hand on my stomach in an attempt to silence it, I walked towards the kitchen so that I could make some breakfast.

_Hmm, toast sounds kinda good, but should I also make something for Bridgette? Maybe some waffles? Yeah, she'd probably like tha-_

"Well well Princess. If I knew I would get this kind of show every time I came over, I'd have to move closer so that I can be here earlier," a voice said, breaking me away from my thoughts. My eyes quickly found the possessor of the voice and they went wide as I took in Duncan; sitting on my couch drinking a cup of coffee.

"Duncan? What are _you _doing here?" I asked, blaming the knotted feeling of my stomach on the lack of food. I mean, what else would it be from? It's not like it's from joy that I'm getting to see the ogre again and that he isn't gone completely from my life. If anything, the fact that he's here should upset me.

"I'm going to a car show with your dad today. He said I should stop by early so that I could see you before we go; something about loving me so much that he wanted to make me part of the family be getting you to marry me," he said indifferently and I started choking on nothing but air, staring wide eyed at Duncan in absolute disbelief. _Me_, marry _him_? Of all the billions of people in this world Daddy could have chosen from to be my consort, it had to be _him_?

"You're lying," I finally managed to say, hoping it was the truth as I glared at the barbarian on my couch. He made some dumb retort about how it was 'safe to say who here just woke up', which honestly doesn't even make all that much sense. So instead of being forced to spend time with Duncan, I turned my back on him and headed for the kitchen in searched of waffle goods.

"Dream of me last night, Princess?" I couldn't help but jump slightly because I hadn't really expected Duncan to follow me into the kitchen.

"Please, as if," I countered, bending over to search for the eggs which my father had hidden away somewhere in the back of the fridge. I had almost found them when Duncan said something that made me freeze.

"Are you wearing a thong Princess? Or maybe no panties at all?" I wanted to say something back, call him a disgusting pervert or defend the fact that I was wearing underwear… no matter how small they may be, but I found that I was frozen. "Either way Princess, I know what I'll be dreaming of tonight," Duncan then added in and that's when I saw red; straightening and spinning around to face the _animal_.

"You barbarian!" I yelled, pointing an accusing finger towards him as I gave him my dirtiest look. "You're an absolute pig!"

"Are you not wearing a bra Courtney?"

The blood drained from my face as I stared at Duncan with a gapping mouth, at a loss of words. All I could make out was a pathetic stutter that of course the brute made fun of.

"Are you going to actually finish that sentence? I thought Princesses were always supposed to be perfectly articulate," he pointed out and that's when I exploded.

"You ogre! You brute! You _pervert_! God, you disgust me! You _repulse _me! I cannot believe that I'm stuck in the same city as you; let alone the same _home_! You are the lowest scum ever to walk the Earth! Why the hell am I the one stuck with you? Christ, you're parents must have had tons of fun raising you! Or were you just raised by a pack of snarling, savage wolves? Because it sure seems like that to me!" I shrieked, stopping then to catch my breath as I just stared at Duncan and he stared back at me.

"You've got quiet a mouth on you Princess, I'd love to put it to some real use," Duncan said smugly, chills running down my spine as his eyes roamed over my body. I suddenly felt like I was naked in front of Duncan… which I kinda was seeing as the small shorts and silk tang top I was wearing didn't offer a lot of cover. The worst part of the whole experience was trying to figure out if I liked the way Duncan made me feel, or hated it.

Then Duncan's words sunk in.

"_Daddy!_" I screamed, enjoying the way that the ogre winced because of how loud I was.

_Now the pig will get it. Just wait until Daddy comes marching in here and kicks the brute to the curb for saying stuff like that to me. _I thought, smirking as I heard my father's footsteps. They were surprisingly calm, and when he finally entered the kitchen… he just stood there… and didn't tear Duncan a new one!

I was about to yell at Dad for being so calm when a tired voice broke the silence. "What's with all the yelling?" Bridgette mumbled, rubbing her eyes as she shuffled into the kitchen.

"Hey Bridge," Duncan greeted the blonde and I just stared in disbelief at how easy he acted with Bridgette while with me… well it was like we were two countries at war! Why is it that Bridgette got the special treatment?

"Duncan? Why are you here?" she asked while yawning and I couldn't help but wrinkle my nose at how impolite she just was. I guess in the long run, it's her more laid back manner that evens out my rules and allows us to coexist as well as we do.

"Would you like some coffee Bridgette?" my father offered, completely ignoring the fact that I had _screamed_ while in the same room as Duncan.

"Oh yeah, sure Tom; thanks," Bridgette said sleepily. Dad moved throughout the kitchen to make Bridgette her coffee then, moving about me like I wasn't even there and like I hadn't just screamed for him. A girl doesn't scream for someone unless they're in _danger_… completely outraged!

"Oh yes Courtney, you called for me?" my father finally asked, turning to me but only after making sure that Bridgette's coffee was to her liking. I wanted to yell, heck, I wanted to _scream _about the injustice and how much of a barbaric ogre Duncan was… but for some odd reason I couldn't. I just couldn't bring myself to throw Duncan under the bus even though on many occasions he's threatened to push me out onto that very same road.

"I just wanted to know where you were because I didn't have the chance to say good morning to you yet," I said, smiling warmly at my father as I lied to him. To make sure my lie was believable; I walked up to Dad and kissed his cheek while telling him good morning.

"I'll be right back," I said softly before leaving for my room so that I could put on more suitable clothes. The last thing I needed was giving Duncan anything more to tease me about… or look at for that matter. I would have just pulled on a sweat shirt, but I didn't feel like getting that hot or putting on something so bulky especially if I was going to be making waffles. So instead I just threw on my Stanford t-shirt… after putting on a bra that is. For a moment I was wondering whether to change out of my shorts or not, but under further inspection of them in my full length mirror I decided that they made my legs look amazing and that I would keep them on.

_Why make things easy on the pig, after all? _I thought, smirking as I made my way back into the kitchen with an extra sway in my step. I was relieved to see that Bridgette had opted for going out into the living room and watching TV so that it was just me and Duncan in the kitchen; him still sitting at the island sipping his coffee, but now reading the newspaper. It was odd to see him doing something like reading because I honestly didn't think that the brute even _knew _how to do something like that, let alone actually read the _news _on his own free will.

"Aww why Princess? You're other outfit was so much more," Duncan paused to lick his lips as he looked up at me lazily, "mouth watering," he finally finished and I forced myself not to blush as I made my way back over to the fridge. This time I was damn well going to get out those eggs; teasing Duncan at the same time was just a little bonus.

"I didn't know you knew how to read, ogre," I commented, biting back laughter as Duncan huffed and shot me a look.

_Yeah, doesn't feel that great to be on the receiving end now, does it? _I thought smugly, bending over again to pull out the waffle maker. Of course, this too was buried away in the land of Oz or something because Daddy never makes them just for himself and I doubt ever has any 'kids' staying with him that would want waffles.

"There're a lot of things you don't know about me Princess," was his only muttered reply as I straightened and placed the maker on the counter next to the eggs and milk. Now all I need to do is find that box of mix so that I could put it all together and make some delicious waffles.

_Why the heck is the mix all the way up there? _I wondered, straining to reach the box in a cupboard above the fridge. Although I'm not short by any means, a good 5 feet 9 inches… well the cupboard was taller and I couldn't quiet reach it. A groan escaped my lips as I pushed myself further against the fridge and went up on my tippy toes in an attempt to reach it. Then, just when I was about to give up and pull over a chair or something, a warm body pressed against mine from behind and I felt a chill run down my spine as I sucked in a quick gasp of air from the feeling.

It was Duncan, I had no doubt of that; I could smell him all around me and it quiet honestly started to make me feel a little dizzy. That and that _alone_, is the only reason that I'm glad Duncan has me trapped between the front of the fridge and his wonderfully defined chest. God, I could feel every muscle through the thin shirt he was wearing and it just made more tremors run through my body as I felt Duncan slide his hand up my arm and past my extended hand, grabbing the box of mix effortlessly.

"What's the magic word?" he whispered against my ear and I felt my pulse start to speed up from feeling him so close. I was afraid that I would soon start quivering in his arms, glad that I wasn't facing him so that he could see my face but also very aware of how his body aligned with mine in a_ very_ suggestive manner. There was barely even room to breathe, so I dared not to move incase I… _rubbed _up against anything I didn't necessarily want to.

I knew exactly what Duncan wanted to hear from me, but I felt… dirty when thinking about how all of this could be seen from an outsider. Still, even if I wanted to just give up and tell him what he wanted to hear, I couldn't; my mouth dry and throat tight.

"I'm not leaving until you say it Courtney," Duncan told me and just to prove his point, the ogre pressed up against me further; a gasp escaping my lips (moist from licking them so much) as my head fell back into the crook of his neck and shoulder.

"Please," I finally whispered, just wanting to be free of Duncan's hold because it was doing weird things to my body like causing it to heat up and become hypersensitive to his every touch.

"Please what?" Was whispered against my neck as Duncan let his lips trail over the exposed skin. This made me actually physically shudder as I squirmed in his hold, no longer caring what the hell I 'rubbed' up against.

"Just let me go," I hissed, unwilling to bend so easily to Duncan's demands. I was a CIT for God's sakes! I'm the one that gives orders!

"Not until you say it," Duncan reminded me, his voice taking on a teasing tone as he pressed up against me further. I honestly wasn't sure we could get any closer, but Duncan seemed pretty determined to prove me just how wrong I could be. Now the question is, do I really want to play this game? Or just call it quits, give up, and keep it safe.

_Fight! _My subconscious told me and, much like I had been doing a lot today, I pushed away those thoughts and ignored them.

"Please Duncan," I finally said, hating how my voice took on a breathy tone as a blush spread across my cheeks. Behind me, I first _felt _then heard Duncan's chuckles as he slid the box of mix into my still extended hand. I thought we were done then, that he would just step away and leave me be to make some breakfast, but this is Duncan I'm talking about; nothing is _ever _easy.

His hands rubbed down my naked arms, making the skin tingle wherever he touched as my body broke out in chills. From my arms, they moved down my sides; grazing dangerously close to the sides of my breasts before continuing down to my hips where they came to a halt.

"Good girl," he whispered before he was gone from me completely.

The moment I was free, I spun around to give the pig a good taste of my mind, but he wasn't even in the kitchen anymore. He had just taken his coffee and newspaper and left for the living room to go be with Bridgette.

_What a man whore. _I thought before blushing upon realizing just what that thought was insinuating.

"Waffles," I said under my breath before shaking my head and going about making breakfast.

It was just about done when Bridgette came walking in to get more coffee, saw the waffles, and smiled brightly at me. "You're the best Court!" she squealed, running over and giving me a tight hug as we both laughed.

"Now if only you were both covered in mud and wearing bikinis," Duncan said from the doorway, ruining the 'moment' as I broke away from Bridgette to glare at the ogre.

"He's just mad that I get waffles and he doesn't," Bridgette clarified, sticking her tongue out as she went over to a cupboard and pulled out plates and cups. While she went about setting the table for the two of us, I put the dirty dishes into the sink and brought over the plate with a tall stack of Belgium waffles on it.

"After my lovely wake up, there's no way that Duncan is getting _any _of this," I assured Bridgette, though my eyes were locked with Duncan's piercing blue ones. I could tell that he picked up on my secret message as he raised an eyebrow before his eyes flickered over my body once again and he smirked.

"None of it looks good anyway," he said smugly and I bit the inside of my lip to keep from frowning. I really did hate it when he came marching in and ruined all of my glory.

Huffing, I sat down at the island and poured a great helping of maple syrup onto my waffle before cutting off a piece. I knew that Duncan was lying about what he said… well at least about the waffle part that is, because this thing looked absolutely delicious and my stomach's grumbles confirmed this. Just as I was about to go in for the first bite, someone swooped in for the kill before me and stole the piece of waffle right off of my fork.

"What the?" I muttered before turning to see Duncan standing over me and smiling as he chewed. I shot him a look and he just took it, not even seeming phased.

"What?" he questioned and I just glared at him more. "Just because it doesn't look all that great doesn't mean I'm not going to try some," he said, justifying himself as I turned my back on him and cut another piece of waffle.

"Although I must say," he whispered, once again dangerously close to me, "now that I've tried some, it looks pretty damn good after all." And once again Duncan made his statement before leaving the room.

"What was that all about?" Bridgette asked, mouth full of waffle as she grabbed her second one off of the top of the stack.

I looked back over to her and scoffed. "How am I supposed to know? Half the time, I don't even thing the ogre knows what he himself is doing," I easily lied and Bridgette just laughed before continuing to eat.

As I was about to take my bite, I let my eyes scan around the kitchen for any sign of the barbarian. None; Duncan was nowhere to be seen. And with that out of the way, I could eat my breakfast in peace; sighing contently as a full feeling settled in my stomach after just a couple of bites. If there's one thing I love, it's food. The elliptical in the back room is to guarantee that my love of food doesn't start to show.

"Gosh Princess, and you call me the barbarian," Duncan snickered, smirking as he walked past me to get more coffee. I blushed deeply, picking up my napkin and wiping the corners of my mouth as I swallowed the huge bite of waffle in my mouth. Bridgette laughed softly through her own bite of food and I shot her a look as my blush darkened.

"Shut up Bridgette and eat your waffles," I muttered, lowering my gaze to my own plate of food that was nearly empty even though we'd barely been eating for five minutes.

_Oh yeah, I'll definitely be taking a visit to the elliptical later today. _I thought grimly, not at all looking forward to the three miles I'd have to run on the machine before I'd start to feel better.

"I'll eat them Court, if you leave any for me," the blonde across from me teased and I tensed upon hearing Duncan laugh from behind me.

"You know, it would explain why carrying you that first night was so much work," the ogre threw out and while Bridgette snickered, I felt my stomach knot up and quickly pushed the plate of food away from me.

"Duncan, you ready to go to that car show?" My father said, breaking the silence that had settled between the three of us in the kitchen.

"Sure thing Tom, just finishing up my coffee," Duncan said, winking in my direction when my dad's back was turned. I huffed; picking up my plate and throwing away the rest of my waffle before heading over to the sink that the barbarian was sadly still near by.

"Well hurry up, we need to leave soon," Dad said before leaving the kitchen once again. As I was rinsing off my plate, Duncan swooped in with his mug of coffee and stole away the water from me so that he could clean his own dishes.

"Would it kill you to say excuse me?" I growled, shoving past Duncan so I could open the dishwasher and put my dirty dishes in it. From behind me, I heard a laugh that I'm now sure will haunt my dreams for as long as I live.

"Are you really willing to risk testing it if it turns out I do die? Because, lets face it, you'd be pretty damn bored without me; on that note, probably boring yourself as well," the brute said to himself, leaning against the counter casually while holding the empty mug in his hand. I quickly snatched said dish and put it into the dishwasher before closing up the machine and moving away from it and Duncan all together.

"Trust me Duncan, I'm more than willing to risk it," I assured him, my eyes narrowed as I leaned against the counter opposite of him. Watching him as he watched me, I couldn't help but push myself against the counter more as Duncan walked towards me with a glint in his eyes.

"Don't worry Princess; I won't be gone for long. In fact, I'll probably make it home for dinner," he said with a small chuckle, almost like it was thrown out there as an after thought.

"Oh lucky me," I muttered, crossing my arms while trying to ignore just how physically close we were. It was nothing compared to how close we had been early when he had had me pressed up against the fridge (I swear the brute is still giddy off of _that _moment), but it was still too close for my tastes.

"Lucky indeed," Duncan whispered before pulling away from me and heading over to Bridgette. Over the sound of my pounding heart beat, I heard them say good byes to each other before the barbarian left the kitchen and the penthouse all together with my dad.

"So… what are we doing today?" Bridgette asked as she cut out another bite of waffle for herself.

"Shopping," I said, running a hand through my hair and cringing at all the tangles. "After I shower though," I quickly added in before heading for my bathroom.

As I was undressing, I caught a smell of my clothes and couldn't help but pause and smell them again out of curiosity. Very faintly, I could smell my own floral aroma, but it was masked heavily by a spicy and smoky musk that could only belong to Duncan. I found the scent to be comforting in some ways, but it also managed to get my heart pumping harder in ways that confused me.

"Hurry up in there Court. There's a one day sale that we need to get to before everyone takes all the good stuff, "Bridgette said through the door, drawing me from my thoughts as I jumped and quickly dropped my shirt as if it burned to touch.

"Uh alright, I'll be quick!" I quickly called back before getting out of the rest of my clothes and stepping under the spray of the warm water. For some maybe not so horrible reason, I found that no matter how many times I washed my hair and body… I still smelt Duncan on me.

Standing under the rushing hot water, I got chills.

_**00-00-00**_

So if there are some minor spelling/grammar errors towards the end of the chapter it's because my beta's computer died and I'm going away for the week and really wanted this updated before I left so I did it without her mostly. All the same, huge thanks to my beta _edwardandbell4evah_ because she puts up with me and my demands; so huge thanks! As for the chapter, I hope you all enjoyed the little Duncan and Courtney and fridge moment; that was certainly the most enjoyable part of the chapter to write. It's also pretty entertaining in Duncan's POV which is in next chapter and hopefully coming out some time before school starts on the 16th (mega gross).

I'm not really sure there's much else that I need to really address right now so I'll end this (in comparison) small A/N with asking you guys to please review because they make me happy and I would love to come back from my vacation and see reviews from all my lovely readers!

_Kattie_


	12. To Each His Own

After my comment towards Princess' choice of clothing, or lack of clothing, Bridgette had gone back to drinking her coffee which smelt of vanilla. It's safe to say that I was envious although I really had no right to be because I was the one who had turned down creamer and just asked for black.

"Quit eyeing my coffee Duncan," Bridgette said, sticking her tongue out at me as she left the kitchen and headed for the living room. I only laughed softly to myself before scanning the kitchen for something entertaining, my eyes landing on the morning paper resting on the counter. Realizing that it was my only source of entertainment before Princess came back; I made my way over to the paper and grabbed it before retreating to my stool at the island. Sadly, as I had feared, the paper was just as boring as the actual TV news but at least in the paper they had movie reviews and all that other useless crap. So I opted for reading that while listening for Courtney's footsteps to come walking back into the kitchen.

The footsteps came soon after and I looked up to see Courtney in the same shorts as before, but now in her Stanford shirt and a bra. "Aww why Princess? You're other outfit was so much more," I licked my lips then subconsciously, not even realizing I had done it until Courtney's eyes were on my mouth, "mouth watering." I honestly wouldn't have said something like that but instead something more playful teasing, but what kind of guy would I be if I didn't try to get Princess hot and bothered with my sexually implied comments?

"I didn't know you knew how to read, ogre," Courtney shot back and I just let out an angry breath while shooting her a look.

_Of course I can read. Princess probably can't though; she has people read _for _her. _I thought before my mind went blank of all 'snooty' comments and were instead filled with a multitude of dirty things as I craned my neck to get a better view of Courtney bending over to get something. Jesus Christ did she have some damn near perfect legs, and those shorts! How did someone manage to make shorts that covered but still showed off just enough to keep a guy hungry for more of a show?

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I quickly straightened up in my seat as Princess started to stand up again. "There's a lot of things you don't know abut me Princess," I told her, forcing my eyes to focus on the paper and not on her.

Courtney gave no reply to my comment which I'm honestly not sure is a good thing or not; in the next few seconds I figured out that it was in fact a very good thing because if we had still been talking when Princess switched to her next position I probably would've stuttered or something. As it is, I was having difficulty swallowing the coffee I had just sipped; trying not to choke on it because then Princess would know she was getting to me and I knew that she was just playing games.

_If she wants to play these types of games, then so be it. _I thought with a smirk before standing up and walking silently over to where Courtney stood pressed up against the fridge reaching for some box. With skill that helped me stay out of juvy on multiple occasions, I snuck up silently behind her before pressing my body firmly against hers. I stayed still for a few seconds, enjoying the way her body felt against mine and how she tensed up and let out a gasp. Then, to make it seem like I was actually there for a reason other than to touch her, I extended my arm lazily and grabbed the box that was just out of her reach.

"What's the magic word?" I whispered into her ear, loving that I had her completely trapped and that she dare not try to push me away because of how _nicely _our bodies were aligned. Through her back, I could feel the quick beating of her pulse and it only made me love this position all the more; oh God I'll kill whoever walks in and ruins this for me.

When Courtney didn't say what I wanted her to, I pressed her further… literally. "I'm not leaving until you say it Courtney," I assured her, pressing my body further against hers while trying to keep my breathing normal. It became extremely hard to control myself when, after pressing against her further, Courtney let out a gasp as her head rolled against my neck. My heart started beating faster when I realized that she was actually _enjoying_ this and I found myself licking my lips again as I tightened my grip on the box that I had almost dropped. Christ, why the hell does this girl have such an affect on me?

"Please," Courtney finally whimpered out and I found it hard to resist the urge to press up against her further.

"Please what?" I teased before my lips trailed over the exposed skin of her neck. My actions surprised Princess almost as much as they surprised myself, but I could tell that she enjoyed it much more than I did as she squirmed against my hold; ending up with her back side pressing up against a very happy part of my body. Jesus, I should really get a medal or something for the amount of self control I possess.

"Just let me go," Courtney demanded and I just smirked against her neck, so glad that she had said that so I could press her further.

"Not until you say it," I reminded her, pressing against her more still. God, her scent was everywhere and it was absolutely intoxicating; all I could think of was her.

"Please Duncan," Princess finally breathed out and I just about died at how pleading she sounded. I know that she wasn't thinking about this situation the way I was, but that didn't stop me from committing her plead to memory and putting it into different situations… or maybe the same one, just minus some clothes.

Knowing that I now had to let her go, I actually felt a little bummed because playing with Princess had been oh so much fun. Still though, just because it was over didn't mean that I couldn't have a last little bit of fun. Chuckling to myself as a thought came to mind, I handed her the box before I slowly began to slide my hands down Courtney's naked arms; taking note of all the goose bumps that broke out on her skin and loving the fact that I had caused them. Wanting to test just how far Princess would let me go, I continued to run my hands down her body; teasing along the curves of her breasts before forcing my hands to keep moving down to her hips which I stopped at.

"Good girl," I purred in approval before pushing myself away from Courtney, grabbing my coffee and the paper, and heading out for the living room.

"Got tired of tormenting Courtney?" Bridgette asked, not even bothering to look over at me when I sat down next to her on the couch.

"Never," I said, smirking as Bridgette just rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to come out here and see how my favorite Malibu Barbie was doing," I then added and the blonde laughed as I smiled.

"Well I'd probably be a lot better if I didn't have to listen to you and Courtney bickering all the time. You do realize that she is in fact a friend of mine and that I'd appreciate it if you'd be nice to her," Bridgette pointed out and I just scoffed.

"Unlike Geoff, I don't have to stay on your good side because I'm not trying to get sex from you. Sorry Malibu, but bugging Princess is way too much fun to pass up," I said with a shrug.

"Very cute Duncan, but you can't fool me. I see through your little charade," Bridgette told me and I raised my eyebrow, folding down the newspaper and giving her my full attention.

"And what exactly is my charade?"

"Please, it's as clear as day light that you like Courtney; tormenting her is, for you, just an excuse to be around her. I always knew that you had a soft spot Duncan; who would've thought it'd be for a 'princess'," Bridgette teased and I laughed at how stupid her idea was.

"Really? You think I like Courtney? If by 'like' you mean I'd '_like_ to get in her pants', then hell yes. Anything besides that though? No," I attempted to assure Bridgette but she just shook her head with one of those annoying 'I know everything and you'll be wrong in the end, just wait' looks on her face.

"Try for once to think with your bigger head Duncan," she told me and I just laughed, biting back the urge to ask her which one was that. I kept my dirty comment to myself though and instead just went back to reading the paper because it didn't make me talk about my 'feelings'.

"Mmhm, something smells good," Bridgette mumbled a few minutes later, standing from her spot on the couch and heading for the kitchen. Done with everything interesting in the paper, I followed the blonde. A grin broke out on my face when I saw her and Princess jumping around next to a plate of waffles and while I knew right away why they were acting like they were, I still couldn't help but throw out my dirty thoughts.

"Now if only you were both covered in mud and wearing bikinis," I said, smirking when Courtney glared at me. Bridgette went on about me being mad about my lack of waffles or something as she got out dishes and Courtney put dirty things in the sink.

"After my lovely wake up, there's no way that Duncan is getting _any _of this," Princess stated, shooting me a look that made me raise my eyebrow as my eyes looked over her body out of reflex. So, she wanted to play my games now? Well I'm not a mean reindeer; everyone can _try _to play my games.

"None of it looks good anyway," I said indifferently, smirking when I saw the way that the corners of Courtney's smile fell. She didn't say anything back though which must mean that she'd had a taste of my games and didn't like them all that much which was probably for the best because playing my games would 'dirty her clean soul' or some bible crap like that. Although I have to admit, after just having a piece of toast for breakfast, those waffles sure as hell did look good. And Courtney was cutting off a piece that looked like it was made for me; who am I to turn down something like that?

With as much easy and skill as before, I swooped down for the kill before Princess could and took the bite of syrup drenched waffle off of her fork before she even had the chance to open her mouth.

"What the?" she questioned, turning around and spotting me since I was standing right behind her chair. It wasn't hard for her to figure out what exactly had happened seeing as I was chewing and all, and Courtney quickly shot me a look which I just matched with a look of innocence.

"What? Just because it doesn't look all that great doesn't mean I'm not going to try some," I said and Princess huffed before turning her attention back to her plate and beginning to cut off another piece.

"Although I must say," I began, leaning in close to Courtney so that I could speak quietly so Bridgette wouldn't hear. "Now that I've tried some, it looks pretty damn good after all." And then I was gone again; leaving the kitchen and heading out for the living room not because I wanted to, but just simply for affect. My words wouldn't soak in as much if I stayed in the same room as Princess after saying them because she'd find something to say back to me and totally forget what it was I had even said to her. By leaving, it insured that the last thing I had said would definitely be on Courtney's mind, but it also meant that I couldn't watch her expressions play out as she tried to pick apart my words.

_Freakin' A! How long does it take a guy to put on a tie? _I thought, glancing over at the hallway that Tom had disappeared into. Right now I just needed to get out of this place and away from Courtney and onto more familiar ground; cars, cars are a familiar ground. Stuck up in a penthouse 30 stories up with a princess that's warping my reality is _not _familiar ground at all.

_Coffee. Just go get some coffee; it'll help calm you down. _My subconscious told me and I nodded, tightening my grip on the mug before heading over to the kitchen. I was actually going to just go about my business and get coffee and leave again, but Princess was in there being so non-princess like and I would kick myself for the rest of the day if I didn't make some kind of comment on it now.

"Gosh Princess, and you call me the barbarian," I spoke out, announcing my presence as I walked calmly past the girls and over to the almost empty coffee pot. I guess my comment had stirred something up as I heard Courtney mutter something about Bridgette needing to keep quiet and eat her waffles. To this, Bridgette made some retort about how she would if there were any left and I saw this as the opportune moment to step in and throw my two cents onto the table again.

"You know, it would explain why carrying you that first night was so much work." After I said this, Bridgette choked down her laughter while Princess just pushed her plate of food away from her.

"Duncan, you ready to go to the car show?" Tom asked, standing in the doorway of the kitchen looking all ready to go and rather dressed up.

_This is just a regular car show, right? _I wondered, suddenly self-conscious of what I was wearing. Ah well, at least I didn't have on my skull shirt or anything; black is neutral which means that I should be safe.

"Sure thing Tom, just finishing up my coffee," I told him, catching Courtney's eye and winking at her when her dad wasn't paying attention. To this, Princess scoffed; opting to throw away the rest of her breakfast before walking towards me… or maybe she was heading for the sink.

"Well hurry up, we need to leave soon," Tom said and I nodded before he was gone. Quickly, I chugged down the rest of my coffee, wincing at the bitterness of it, and then rinsed it under the faucet.

"Would it kill you to say excuse me?" Princess demanded and I looked next to me to see her standing with her plate under the running water that I had just stolen from her.

_Oh. Makes sense now. _

"Are you really willing to risk testing it if it turns out I do die? Because, lets face it, you'd be pretty damn bored without me; on that note, you'd probably just be boring all around," I mused, leaning against the counter while holding my mug in thought.

_Hmm, what was Courtney like before she met me? _I wondered, grimacing as I pictured her wearing all her preppy clothes and walking around like she was the shit and everyone should listen to her. _Probably screams for 'daddy' whenever she doesn't get her away. _I thought bitterly before the mug was snatched from me by an angry looking Courtney.

"Trust me Duncan, I'm more than willing to risk it," she said, eyes narrowed as she rested against a counter across from me. She was just being so _defensive_, I honestly couldn't have stopped myself from taking advantage of this situation if I wanted to; it's in my nature as a predator to attack the defensive prey. So, I stepped towards Courtney slowly; taking my time in stalking my prey and smirking when she backed up against the counter further.

"Don't worry Princess; I won't be gone for long. In fact, I'll probably make it home for dinner," I assured her, laughing when I thought about that image. Oh yeah, dinner with Princess again; can't wait.

"Oh lucky me," was all she mumbled as she crossed her arms, staring down at her feet and stiffening. I followed her gaze and had to hold back a laugh when I realized that she had stiffened because she saw just how close we were to each other, our toes almost touching.

"Lucky indeed," I said quietly before leaving Courtney alone so I could say bye to Bridgette.

"Oh yeah, because you're like that with all girls, right?" the blonde muttered when I was close enough to hear and I shot her a look.

"Shut up Malibu Barbie, I know exactly what I'm doing," I muttered and she just rolled her eyes while shaking her head.

"And what's that? Falling for the good girl?" she asked and I laughed quietly, sneaking a glance over at Courtney.

"No, corrupting the good girl. It's really too bad that I can't be around all day to continue with my plans, but I'll be back tonight to play with you girls some more," I assured Bridgette, mocking concern for her which made her laugh as she shoved against my chest playfully.

"Whatever Duncan, try not to have too much fun," she said, smiling up at me.

"See you later Bridge," I replied before catching sight of Tom in the doorway and heading over to him.

"All done with your coffee?" Mr. Cliena asked and I could've sworn that there was a glint in his eyes; like he _knew _my true motives and why I had stayed in the kitchen for so long.

"Yeah, and it did the trick too. I feel ready to take on the day now," I said, following the older man into the elevator; the ride down taking a long time because we had to go down not only 30 floors, but also stop for whoever else hailed the elevator.

"Have you ever thought about getting your own elevator? Like, aside from the one that leads to your private garage?" I asked, shooting a look at the retreating backs of people who we had to stop for. Mr. Cliena caught my evil eye and laughed as he pressed the button for the doors to close again.

"Trust me, I've tried, but the building owners said that it wasn't possible," he explained and I just grunted, leaning back against the wall of the elevator.

"Guess money can't really get you everything you want," I muttered and Tom nodded.

"No, it can't, but it can buy you tickets to a very expensive car show," he said and I smirked.

_Enjoy it while you can because no matter what Tom says, in a couple of days you'll be history. _My subconscious reminded me and I winced upon realizing just how true those thoughts were. Why would I be kept around? So that whenever they wanted to feel better about themselves they could look at me and realize they could have it so much worse and be forced to live on the first floor?

"How long is the show supposed to last?" I asked and Tom raised his eyebrow. Shrugging, I put on a casual smirk before explaining. "I promised Bridgette and Courtney I'd be home for dinner." To this, Tom laughed and I couldn't help but join in. This was how the people on the lobby floor were greeted, two guys laughing rather loudly. Seeing the looks on the old couples' faces when they took in my appearance only made me laugh harder as Tom ushered me out of the elevator and bid the people a good day.

"Are you always this animated in the morning?" Mr. Cliena asked as we walked out of the man doors.

_The hallway clock was ticking, but it was too dark to read what the time was. The kitchen had digital clocks though, and from the illuminated symbols on the oven I saw the silhouette of a figure. _

"You okay Duncan?" Tom asked, breaking me away from my thoughts. I shuddered at the memories and turned my attention to the man a few steps in front of me.

"Wow," I whispered, catching sight of the car behind him. Jesus, I had only seen cars like this in magazines that I'd managed to steal; never before in real life, let alone only a few feet away from me.

"You like her?" Mr. Cliena asked, smiling proudly as he stepped towards the red viper parked along the curb. My mouth had actually started to water; gazing at the car with glazed over eyes full of pure car lust. I blame my love for cars on all the time I spent in and out of juvy as a young teenager; the guys I kicked it with were put into juvy for their mad and illegal skills with cars.

"We're riding in this?" I choked out, taking a hesitant step towards the sports car.

"Of course," Tom said, walking over to the driver's side and unlocking the car. Snapping out of my daze, I walked towards the car and let my hand rest on the handle. My gut told me to be prepared to be mauled to the ground by angry security guards for even being so close to the car, but no one was around to do that; Tom being the only person paying attention to me and he was actually telling me to get in. Finally, I managed to get the car door open and sank into the heated leather seats with a blissful sigh.

"You see son, the whole point of going to a car show when you're old and rich is to see all of the other business men you've worked with over time and rub in their faces the fact that your car is a helluva lot better than theirs," Mr. Cliena said with a small smirk, resting his hands on the steering wheel with a kind of gentleness reserved solely for a loved vehicle.

"I doubt I'd see any of my Starbucks buddies at a car show," I mumbled, trying to suppress the chills I got upon hearing Tom start up the engine. I looked out the window next to me and saw the awe and envy in passer-bys' eyes; it was a wonderful thing, even if I was just the indirect form of their envy.

"You never know; don't count anybody out before it's even begun," Tom said to me and to that I just nodded, too lost in amazement towards the car to really be able to carry a conversation.

"What kind of music do you listen to?" Tom asked and I looked over at him curiously. "It's going to be a bit of a ride so we might as well have some music," he explained and I nodded.

"I'll listen to anything really, so long as it isn't country," I said dryly, cringing as I thought of the thick drawl heard in those songs about BBQs and someone getting their heart broken by some horse or another. I consider myself a guy of many tastes and quiet a high tolerance, but I just can't stomach country music for whatever reason.

"Ah, good man; I can't stand country myself," Mr. Cliena told me, smiling as he reached over to turn on the radio. I'm glad that he did it because I honestly would've have been sure which button to press; on that note, I'd just be too afraid to touch anything in the car incase I damaged it in any way.

I'm not gonna lie; when Mr. Cliena turned on the radio I honestly expected classical music to start playing or something. I don't mind classical music, but I've just started to wake up and the last thing I want or need is to be put to sleep by classical music.

_Sleep brings the memories. _

"Classics, nice," I hummed in approval, relaxing into my seat as ACDC sounded out perfectly through the car's speakers.

"Oh yeah, I've always had a love for rock. It's Trish, Courtney's mother, who forced me to appreciate classical music. A car ride with her even just around the block feels like it's taken 30 minutes because all she does is play classical music; if you're lucky you'll fall asleep and it'll all be over sooner," Tom explained and I groaned from just the thought of that kind of torture. Classical music is good for listening to in the morning while you're getting ready and eating breakfast and all that; after that, it just needs to be turned off and switched to something with a louder beat.

"Where is Courtney's mother? If you don't mind me asking," I quickly added in, realizing then that Mrs. Cliena may be a bit of a touché subject.

"She's back in California which is where Courtney usually stays because of her school. We're not divorced or anything, I just have a lot of business here in New York so I bought the penthouse so I'd always have a place to stay. Trish has always loved California though so I couldn't force her to move away so I come here during prolonged business trips and Courtney stays in California with her mother so she can go to school at Stanford," Tom explained and I nodded, wondering how Courtney felt about all of this.

"How long have you been here on this business trip?" I asked.

"I'm scheduled to be here for a good part of the year, maybe even longer because I'm helping to start a new business that will branch off from my main one. It's the longest I've ever been away from Courtney, so she came to visit and is staying with me for the next few months while her mother takes care of her bakery in California," Tom said and I grimaced.

_A whole year away on a business trip? Sounds brutal. _

"How do you do it?"

Mr. Cliena looked over at me for a moment before turning his attention back to the road. "I just keep telling myself that it's for Courtney and that because of me being away she'll have a better future. In most cases, that helps me finish the project without taking a few days trip back to be with my wife and child. This time I was lucky enough to have Courtney come to see me, though even with all the shopping here in New York Trish still won't come to visit," he said sadly and I looked out the window, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable in the car.

All the talk about families was hitting much too close to the heart for my likings; long dismissed memories being brought forward in an almost violent matter. I knew that I should probably say something back to Mr. Cliena, but at the moment I didn't know what it was that I should say; I didn't know what it was I _could _say that wouldn't sound fake. I've never had a 'family' per say, not even when my mother was still…

_Blood. _

"Get out," I hissed under my breath, fisting my hands and forcing the visions out of my head.

_Why? Why is all of this coming back now? _

"You say something Duncan?" Tom asked and I jumped in my seat, quickly looking over at him.

"Uh no, I just had something caught in my throat," I lied, coughing just for extra affect.

"Well the good thing about expensive car shows is that there are always free drinks from a bunch of small businesses that are trying to get customers so whatever it is you've got caught in your throat won't be there for long," he assured me and I just nodded.

_If only it was that easy. _

_00-00-00_

Walking into the showing room where all the cars were being displayed was like walking into a really freakin' great dream; there were even scantily clad women (though the fact that they weren't naked was kinda disappointing).

"Wipe the drool," Tom whispered from beside me and I quickly did as he said, having not even realized that I started drooling.

"This… this is amazing," I said in awe and beside me Tom chuckled.

"You can sit in them," he said and I stopped breathing for a moment, just staring at him with wide eyes.

"You're shitting me," I said, narrowing my eyes at the laughing man.

"No Duncan, I'm not shitting you. I know a lot of the people here and I can pull some strings and flash around my wallet to get what I want. That's the thing with rich people, despite all the money they have they always want more," Mr. Cliena told me and I grinned probably something like a little kid does on Christmas morning.

"How often do you come to these shows?" I asked as we slowly strolled between the cars set up on display.

"Well I get tickets to all of the events; whether I go or not is decided by work. I try to go to as many as I can though," he said and I nodded before falling silent. The whole time we were walking around, I kept noticing that people would like _move _out of Tom's way before he even really got near them. It was… _weird. _

"Are you like a kind of god or something?" I asked quietly, looking at the people oddly as they stared at Mr. Cliena.

"You see all these cars?" Tom asked casually and I just kind of scoffed, looking around.

"How could I not? They're all gorgeous," I assured and Tom laughed.

"I own maybe 60% of them," he whispered to me and my eyes went a little wide… okay, so maybe a lot wide.

"Should I bow and kiss your feet now, or later?" I half heartedly joked because honestly, right now I think I may have done it if he asked.

"You don't need to do that ever. I actually wanted to keep the fact that I owned all of these cars a secret for reason that I'm sure you've aware of now, but it got out by one of the people running the whole thing and now everyone knows. It's actually a little irritating, but at least I don't have to worry about working my way through any crowds," Mr. Cliena said with a charming grin and I couldn't help but grin as well.

"So about that job," I began, still grinning as Tom laughed and gently nudged me.

"Keep up like this and I think that it could definitely be yours," he said and I looked back over at all the cars.

"Sweet."

_00-00_

It was nearing sunset when we finally began driving back to the city, leaving the car show behind us with some regret on my part. I was in an odd kind of daze the whole ride home because car lights and city lights all blended together to look like a never ending stream of light that danced around me as Tom drove back to his home just above the speed limit. If I were the one driving this beautiful car, it'd be going down the high way _at least _twenty over the speed limit. Because really, speed limits shouldn't apply to cars that were created to speed; it's unjust.

"You still with me Duncan?" Tom asked as he pulled up in front of his… well I'm actually not sure what to call his 'home'. Because in theory it's like an apartment building, but all the homes inside are penthouses. So do I call it a penthouse building? Or is that too long? Maybe just penthouse….

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm still here; I just zone out sometimes," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes as I undid my seatbelt. The harsh early wake up this morning was definitely starting to catch up with me, the yawn I covered with my hand proof of that.

"Are you heading home? Or would you like to stay for dinner?" Mr. Cliena asked as he handed off the keys to his car to some guy in a monkey suit standing at the sidewalk. I'm guessing that they knew each other since Mr. Cliena nodded his head to the guy and the guy in turn smiled warmly, but I would still never give away the keys to that car to _anybody. _

"I promised Courtney I'd be home for dinner," I said with a grin, noticing the small smile that appeared on Tom's lips. "Besides, I don't have shit to eat back at my place," I added in and Tom laughed as we walked inside of the lobby.

"Well whenever you're look for some food, just go ahead and stop by; I'll make sure the receptionists know who you are and to let you up," he assured me and I couldn't help but stop for a moment in confusion.

"You trust me going up to your place at any time? Like even if you're not there?" I asked slowly as we entered the elevator. Thankfully, we were alone so that I didn't have to worry about any awkward looks from other people in the elevators. To this, Mr. Cliena just nodded. "You trust me at your place alone with Courtney?" I decided to throw out and Tom just turned his head and looked at me with his eyebrow raised in a look that wasn't exactly confused, but more like 'you're kidding me, right'.

"Yeah, you're right; she'd probably break my hand if I tried anything," I mused and we both chuckled.

_Didn't break my hand this morning. _I thought smugly, smirking at the memory. It'll certainly be interesting to see how Princess acts around me after our little fridge episode. And almost as if on cue with my thoughts, the elevator doors open at that moment on the 'Cliena Floor' as I'm now going to call it. For a while I wasn't sure if Princess and Bridgette were even there, but when we neared the door I could hear the pop music and Bridgette's singing and Princess' laughter.

"Sounds like they're having a party," I said and Tom just laughed.

"Well it's about time," he said and I couldn't help but smile as my eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"She needs to live more," was Tom's only explanation as he opened the door and we entered the dimly lit penthouse. "I'll let you break them up, I'm going to go change," he said before turning down a hallway as I followed the noise of the music down another hallway.

It didn't take me long to find the source of the music; the floor vibrating right in front of the closed door that read 'Courtney'. I contemplated knocking, but decided that it'd be so much more fun to just surprise them. So, ignoring all the 'ninja skills' my friends tried to teach me back in high school, I threw open the door and just stood in the doorway with a smirk on my lips as Princess and Bridgette screamed.

"Duncan! You dick-wad!" Bridgette shouted, holding her hand over her heart as she went over to the stereo system and turned off the horrible music.

"What the hell was that? Britney Spears?" I demanded, wincing for affect to show just how painful it had been to hear the teen pop sensation.

"Get out of my room, you brute!" Princess shrieked, arms crossed over her chest as she stared me down.

"Nice hooker heels," was all I said as I strolled into her room like I owned the place and sat myself down on her king sized (holy shit) bed.

"They are no hooker heels!" Princess quickly defended, her eyes narrowing only more.

"Yeah, there's no way hookers can afford 300 dollar shoes," Bridgette threw in and Princess just about had a heart attack as I chuckled.

"How does daddy dearest feel about you blowing three hundred bucks on hooker heels?" I asked with a smirk and Princess just continued to glare at me, now glaring at Bridgette as well as the blonde joined me in laughter.

"I didn't use his money," was Princess' only reply and I just shrugged.

"All the more for me to spend when I inherit it all from you dad," I was casually and Princess cocked her eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" she demanded and I grinned.

"Well _Tom _and I bonded real well today, so well in fact that I'm almost certain he's already thinking of places to book for our wedding," I teased and Bridgette doubled over in laughter as Princess' eyes went wide and her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"I know you're lying," she declared and I just smirked.

"Believe whatever you like," I said as I made my way over to the door. "Oh and Tom says it's time for dinner," I added over my shoulder before heading out into the hallway. I heard Courtney's angry tone of voice as she and Bridgette discussed something before the sound of their footsteps echoed behind my own in the hallway.

"It figures that Courtney would come out of her room for dinner, she always has loved food," Tom teased his daughter when she stepped into the kitchen. A light blush spread across her cheeks as she stared down at her now bare feet; Bridgette standing beside her with a knowing grin on her lips.

"So what's for dinner Mr. C?" the blonde asked, removing herself from Princess' side and heading over to the island where myself and Tom were sitting.

"I was thinking Chinese; order in and sit around eating it while we enjoy a movie," Tom suggested and I was all too happy but to grin.

"Oh yeah," I cheered and Bridgette joined me in my joy while Courtney just sighed.

"You alright Princess?" Tom asked Courtney and had it not been for the dejected look on her face, I would have snickered at his use of my pet name for her.

"Of course Daddy, everything is fine," she lied through her teeth and false smile. While Tom may have been buying her horrible act, she definitely wasn't fooling me and I vowed to get to the bottom of her mood before the night was over.

_**00-00-00**_

So I apologize now if there are any errors in the chapter, my beta has been extremely busy (as have I) and she never got the chance to look over it so I'm just posting it up. Good news is though that this chapter is long and I've already started on the next chapter. I can't write much today because I have a date (cue flailing!), but tomorrow I am my computer's slave and will be writing like there is no tomorrow. Except, sadly there will be a tomorrow of tomorrow, and that will be Monday which means school and practice.

Oh well, life goes on. Please review because I've missed all of my amazing fanfiction people and would love to hear from you all again!

_Kattie _


	13. Stuck on the Front

"Gosh Court, think you could've taken any longer in there? I was scared that you may have fallen and knocked yourself out or something," Bridgette said with a teasing tone the moment I walked out of the bathroom. I hadn't expected her to be _right there_, so I jumped and this only made Bridgette laugh.

"Someone's a little on edge," she pointed out with a grin and I just crossed my arms, holding my previous clothes closer to my chest which turned out to be a bad idea because Duncan's scent still lingered on the clothes and ambushed my senses with the intent to conquer in mind. Just the smell of him made my heart beat speed up as I felt goose bumps break out on my arms and my muscles pull taunt; my whole being was suddenly alert and ready for him.

"Courtney!" Bridgette said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. I quickly pulled back and waved her hand away.

"What?" I demanded, shooting her a look as I headed to my room so that I could put the clothes in the dirty hamper.

_Then they'll be washed and then his scent will be gone from them. _For some reason, that thought made my stomach sink.

"I said your name like three times and you just kept staring off into space. What's up with you Courtney?" Bridgette asked as she followed me.

"Nothing is _wrong _with me," I grounded out before realizing how rude I sounded and quickly adding in, "I just didn't get that good of sleep and have a lot on my mind." It was a lame cover up and not at all a good enough reason for the way that I had just spoken to my best friend, but I guess my answer was good enough for Bridgette because she quickly broke out into a grin.

"A lot on your mind, hu? Didn't sleep well?" she repeated and I just nodded, wondering just what she was getting at. "Sounds like someone was tossing and turning all night with thoughts of Ethan on their mind," she sang out and I wasn't sure if I wanted to bang my head against the wall or sigh in relief. I chose neither of those, instead opting for a classic: denial.

"What? I was not," I quickly stuttered out, embarrassed that Bridgette was even thinking like that. I mean _really_! I had just met the guy last night and knew nothing except his name.

_And his charming smile. The softness of his eyes when he looks at you. His calloused hands against yours. The warmth of his body invading yours while he has you pinned. _

"You totally were! Your blush says it all," Bridgette said smugly and I just about choked on air when I realized just _who _I had just been thinking about.

_Get out of my head! _

"Oh chill Courtney, it's perfectly normal to have a crush on a drop dead gorgeous guy that daddy approves of," Bridgette teased and I squeezed the clothes in my arms tighter out of panic, the smell of Duncan wafting up only enhancing my panic.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I breathed out, wishing that Bridgette would just leave it alone.

"Courtney you have it _so _bad for Ethan! Oh my gosh! You should see how much you're blushing! Aww Court that's so cute!" Bridgette squealed and I just about died. I wanted to fight her on this and convince her that I wasn't "crushing on Ethan", but if I did manage to convince her then she would wonder what I was really blushing about and that was a road that _I _wasn't even ready to go down on my own. The last thing I would need was Bridgette strolling down it with me, squealing the whole time.

"Alright so maybe a little," I finally caved, wincing when Bridgette clapped her hands together and laughed. Looking at her then, I knew that it was the last time I would ever be making her waffles.

"We definitely have to set you up on another date with him Courtney because he's absolutely _gorgeous_," she swooned and I just rolled my eyes with a smile as I walked towards my room. Bridgette was of course hot on my heels the whole time talking about how dreamy and perfect Ethan was, but I was only half heartedly listening to her. The rest of my heart was swept away in a musky spice laced with hints of dirt and smoke. Something about the smell made my skin feel like it was on fire even though I was practically covered in goose bumps.

"If you like him so much, why don't _you _marry him," I teased, half turning my head towards Bridgette as we entered my room finally. It seriously felt like it took us five minutes of navigating through the hall ways to make it to my room; although we could have just possibly been walking extremely slowly.

"Because I have Geoffrey duh," Bridgette said as if I had just asked the stupidest question ever. I couldn't help but to shoot her a look because I didn't have to think back all that long in order to remember far stupider questions that she had asked me.

"Well you sure seem to be in love with Ethan," I said over my shoulder while going into my closet. Behind me, I could faintly hear Bridgette's gasping and sputtering noises as she began to deny it and I just rolled my eyes.

"What was that you said Bridgette? You write your name as Bridgette Adams? That's just creepy Bridge," I teased, loving how her exasperated sounds grew in volume even as I went deeper into my closet.

"You're an absolute idiot Courtney," Bridgette was muttering when I finally came back out of my closet with some clean clothes.

"You're the one who fell in love with a guy after knowing him for one night," I pointed out, dropping the subject of Ethan and thinking back to the night when Bridgette had met this guy her sophomore year.

_"Courtney, look!" Bridgette hissed, yanking on my arm so violently that I thought for sure it was going to come out of the socket. _

_ "What? What is it?" I asked, eyes widening in case something bad was happening. I was already freaked out enough just because I was at the party; the last thing I needed was for someone to be doing something stupid that would cause the police to show up and have my parents find out where I really was. _

_ "Look at him Court! He's absolutely _gorgeous_," Bridgette cooed and when I finally saw just who she was talking about, I could only roll my eyes. _

_ Ever since middle school, Bridgette has been obsessed with boys and was constantly finding a new one to drool after. Tonight, it was this "hunk" with shaggy blonde hair and tan skin, all wrapped up in a tight white t-shirt and blue jeans. _

_ "What makes him so differently from the guy you were in love with last week?" I muttered as Bridgette slowly guided me past a chair where a couple was making out so we could circle this hunk. I felt like a shark. _

_ "He has blue eyes!"_

"Oh shut up Courtney," Bridgette huffed, crossing her arms across her chest and cutting off my train of thought. I just snickered and went about getting dressed, glad for a little piece and quiet.

"But really Courtney, you and Ethan are like so perfect for each other," Bridgette tried to convince me and I just sighed.

_It _had _been quiet. _

"Speaking of couples, when were you going to tell me about you and Geoff?"

I had her stumped there because her mouth opened before closing again. "You didn't think I'd forget about that, did you?" Still no answer. "How long have you two been dating?"

"I'm sorry Courtney I meant to tell you!" Bridgette semi-sobbed. In less than a second it seemed, she had made her way across the room and had latched herself onto me in a spine popping hug. "I just figured that you were so busy with your school work in California I didn't think that you'd have time to deal with me and my boy matters since I've had a tendency in the past to 'fall in love' with a new one every week," she explained lamely and I just shook my head.

"Thanks Bridgette. Way to give me great credit as a friend," I said, mocking hurt and I slowly worked my way out of her death grip.

"You're an amazing friend Courtney!" Bridgette quickly said before a look settled into her features and I took a tentative step back. "Which is why you're going to go out on a date with Ethan and not just let this opportunity slip by you."

"I should have known you would somehow twist this around to me going out with Ethan," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"Aw come on Courtney. You _know _you're _dying _to go on a date with that fine piece of ass," Bridgette said with a wink and I felt my cheeks heat up from the way in which she so delicately described one of Ethan's best features.

"I don't have a say in this, do I?" I sighed, rolling my eyes in preparation for the cry of joy Bridgette let out as she practically jumped onto me.

"Of course you don't! What kind of ridiculous question is that? Oh but Courtney you're going to have _so_ much fun! Just you wait, you'll totally love it. Ethan is such a great guy; I can just imagine the gorgeous babies you'll make together." Bridgette continued to go on about all of Ethan's amazing qualities and I chose to tune her out. She honestly had no idea what she was even talking about because she had just met the guy the previous night and we had barely even shared a conversation. Heck, we barely talked at all.

"I know absolutely nothing about Ethan," I whispered and somehow Bridgette heard because she went on about how that didn't matter because that was what our date was going to be for: to get to know each other and realize that we're soul mates. Everything about that idea seemed completely ridiculous. It is just simply _not _possible to fall for a guy after only knowing him for a night.

_Then explain Duncan._ My subconscious demanded and I had to resist the urge to scream because that was the one thing I could not do. For the life of me I could not even begin to explain how or why Duncan and all of my feelings associated with him happened. And it was killing me because more than anything I wanted to be able to explain Duncan; make sense of what was happening with him so that I could then proceed to deal with it. But I had no idea what was happening. I was lacking all control of the situation and it was making me crazy.

"That's what we should get when we go shopping tonight! An outfit for you to wear on your dinner date with Ethan. You know it will be at a spectacular and expensive restaurant because there is no way he would take you on some cheap first date, oh god no. He'll want to make a last impression upon you and you should definitely do the same to him by wearing a killer outfit."

"Well then we better get shopping because nothing I have here will be good enough," I quickly say, cutting off Bridgette from talking more. Right now I just wanted to get away from home and out onto the streets where I would have plenty of things to distract me from my thoughts of Duncan.

"That's the spirit! Grab your purse and let's get us to a store," Bridgette said giddily as she all but skipped to the front door. "Oh and we should probably get you some sexy underwear too because you never know," she added in with a wink in my direction. I had no comment to this because what Bridge suggested was absolutely out of the question. There was _no _way I was going to sleep with Ethan, let alone any chance of him even getting to see me in "sexy underwear".

"You're hopeless Bridge," was all I could say with a fond shake of my head to which she just laughed before proceeding to pull me into the elevator.

_00-00-00_

It wasn't until the third store that the shopping adventure began to take its toll on me. I had already woken up with my back sore and extremely stiff, and it was a condition that had only gotten worse after walking around the city and trying on countless dresses. Bridgette was walking about as if she had not a care in the world and I was jealous of her because I could not stop from worrying and being in pain.

Making matters worse, whenever I tried to tell Bridgette that I needed to stop or that I was in pain she would always spot some amazing store and just become so excited by an outfit that I felt like a bad person for even thinking about ruining that by bringing her back to the reality at hand.

"Hey Bridge, are you hungry?" I quickly said while she was judging an outfit. She paused for a moment before shrugging, clearly more interested in the outfit than her bodily needs. But I refused to give up because I needed to rest or I was afraid I was going to mess up my stitches. "How about thirsty? There's a Starbucks right around the corner and they have this new drink that's to die for."

This caught her attention as she licked her lips and a smile spread across my face. "After this store, alright?" Although I wanted to leave to rest then, I was fine to abide by her request because at least I knew that rest would soon be following.

"I'm surprised it's even taken this long. You usually have an amazing eye for the perfect outfit. I think you're starting to lose your gift," I teased Bridgette who just shot me a glare before returning her attention to the clothes in her hands. If there was one thing I knew Bridgette for, it was that she fell in love quickly. Whether it was clothes or boys, Bridgette was always quick to find "the perfect one", but today was different. Something was on her mind and I made a mental note to figure out what it was.

"Hmm, try this on. I want to see how it looks with your hair," Bridgette mumbled while practically shoving a dress into my arms. Instead of making a comment on how rough she was being, I just took the dress back towards the dressing rooms. Maybe I would get lucky and there would be a seat within my dressing room that I could rest in for a moment while Bridgette was out hunting.

A woman greeted me as I entered the dressing rooms and she offered to take my clothes to a room for me. When she came back I had seated myself on the surrounding plush chairs and she asked if I would like anything to drink. I requested water and waited for her to come back with my drink before actually going to try on my dress.

I was stiff getting out of my clothes and was once again questioning why I hadn't just worn something simple like a summer dress or even sweats. Anything would be more comfortable than the skinny jeans and fitted top I had stupidly chosen to wear that day. Both were a pain to get in and out of and definitely not the best choice of clothes, especially when considering the fact that I still had a rather large band aid stuck to my back. As I had been doing all day, when I stripped out of my clothing I quickly turned so that my back was to the mirror and I could get a look at the band aid. Thankfully no blood was leaking through which hopefully meant that I wasn't bleeding at all and not just too small of an amount to soak through.

I just wanted this wound to heal so that I could be done with it and move forward and just forget about the entire exchange. _Would that mean forgetting about Duncan?_ The thought made my stomach cramp and I actually bent in half in feeble attempts to reduce the pain rippling through my abdomen, but nothing helped. The pain stayed with me and I could only force myself to breathe and drink water until it finally subsided.

"What is taking you so long? I found like three other dresses I need you to try on," Bridgette announced from outside of my dressing room.

"Sorry, these jeans are not easy to get out of," I quickly lied while scrambling to get on the first dress as quickly as I could. Before I even had the dress zipped up, I knew that it was not the dress but still had to finish putting it on fully so that Bridgette could see. I had barely opened the door before Bridgette was forcing her way in while telling me to take off the dress because it was "all wrong." I did as I was told, but made a point of keeping my front to Bridgette so that she would not have to see my back. I didn't want her to become concerned and even more out of it than she already was.

The next dress I tried on was a soft sky blue color and while it was better than the previous dress, it was definitely not a winner and I was out of it as quickly as I had been in it. This continued until I was onto the last dress and Bridgette and I were both beginning to lose hope.

"Just try it on so we can leave already. I can't handle any more failure," Bridgette moaned dramatically, rolling her head along the back of the chair and looking anywhere but at me. That was just fine with me because I wasn't used to having eyes on me for that long anyway, but I still didn't enjoy seeing my friend in the state she was in.

"Alright, it's on," I announced before turning to look at myself in the mirror. It was at that same moment that Bridgette looked up and both of us took in a quick breath upon seeing the dress on me.

"Oh Court, this is the dress!" Bridgette squealed, quickly jumping up and tackling me into a hug. I was so happy she had finally said those words that I too began jumping with her, ignoring the sharp pain that traveled across my back.

"It's gorgeous Bridgette. You did an amazing job," I congratulated her and I could tell that that made her happy by the wide smile that spread across her lips.

"Oh you know," she said with a mock hair flip. To that I could only laugh and playfully shove her before beginning to get out of the dress. I took my time getting out of the dress because then it was mine and I did not want to risk anything happening to it.

"Starbucks and then shoes?" I asked while pulling back on my own clothes.

"Food and then shoes; shopping always makes me work up an appetite," Bridgette told me and I just nodded, more than happy with the thought of getting to sit down for an hour while getting some food. I hadn't realized it until Bridgette brought up her appetite, but I was actually famished.

"Do you know any good places near by?" I asked while paying for the dress.

"Sign here please Ms. Cliena," the cashier said and I quickly signed my name, not even blinking at the almost $500 cost. "Have a lovely day," the woman told me with a smile before we were gone from the store and back out on the street.

"There's this really good Italian place just a couple of blocks down. They have some of the best bread sticks," Bridgette explained and I just laughed.

"Lead the way."

_00-00-00_

It was half way through our meal when Bridgette fell silent. That almost never happened. Bridgette always had something to say and if she didn't she would ask me a question and force me to have something to say. But no, she was just silent and it was concerning me.

"Is everything alright Bridgette?" I asked, watching as she twirled the pasta on the plate but never ate it.

"What?" she seemed startled from deep thought, but tried to quickly cover it with a wave of her hand. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Shopping is just so exhausting," she said, but I knew that it was a lie. Bridgette and I had once gone shopping for twelve hours without taking a break and she had been absolutely fine. No, exhaustion wasn't her problem.

"Come on Bridge, I know that there's something bothering you." She just looked up at me pathetically and seemed to be debating over something as she bit her bottom lip and twisted at the napkin in her hands.

"It's nothing, really Courtney," she said with a weak smile and I just rolled my eyes.

"If you don't tell me then I guess I'll just be forced to return this dress and go to dinner with Ethan in one of my Stanford sweatshirts," I said with an indifferent shrug of my shoulders. This got Bridgette's attention as she quickly sat up in her chair and began telling me that to do that would be absolute suicide and completely crazy. "Well then tell me what's wrong so that I don't have to ruin my chances of having a successful date."

"It's really not that big of a deal, barely even worth talking about."

"Well tell me anyway. I want to know." She gave me a look, asking if I was ever going to drop it. My unwavering gaze gave her all the reply she needed before she let out a sigh and slumped back in her chair.

"It's just stupid boy troubles that I don't want you to have to deal with. I mean you were stabbed the other night. You have so many more important things to deal with than my boy problems," she began, looking up at me quickly to see how I reacted.

"Exactly Bridgette, I was stabbed the other night. Now give me something else to think about, please." This seemed to be what Bridgette needed to hear because after that she began to tell me what had been bothering her.

"Geoffrey and I have been dating for almost a year and things are pretty serious between us. He is definitely the most serious relationship I've ever had and it's all really new to me. So a few days before you flew into town, he asked me to move in with him."

I gasped. "What did you tell him?"

"I told him that I had to think about it, and I haven't talked to him since," she told me and I could see how much that had been bothering her because she was fighting back tears.

"Well… do you want to move in with him?" It seemed like the most stupid question I could have asked, but sometimes it was the stupid questions that made everything come into perspective.

"I don't know. Part of me does because I really like the guy and he's sweet and funny and cute and a really good kisser, but if I move in with him I'm making this huge commitment and I don't know if I'm ready for that yet. I don't know if I'm ready to settle down and give up my living quarters so that I can live with him. And then what would the next step be? Getting engaged? Oh Courtney I'm not ready for that. I'm barely out of high school and I'm just finally earning some of my freedom," Bridgette explained, biting her bottom lip to keep the tears from spilling over.

"Tell him that. If he really cares about you that much then he will understand and respect everything that you just told me." I wanted to make her feel better about the situation she was in, but everything just seemed to drag Bridgette down further.

"But that's just it Courtney. He _really_ cares about me. And I'm terrified of breaking his heart because I actually really care about him too."

"Well you need to talk to him Bridgette. It's not fair that you let yourself get dragged down because of this. It will only give you wrinkles," I teased and that seemed to lift her spirits because she laughed while playfully rolling her eyes. "Come on now, lets go find me some amazing shoes to go with this amazing dress and then we can go home and blast pop music and dance around," I offered and a grin broke out across Bridgette's face.

"I like the sound of that."

_00-00-00_

I was afraid that finding shoes to go with the dress would be just as difficult as finding the dress itself, but Bridgette was back in her element and found them the first store we entered. Unfortunately they were not cheap, but they were by far the perfect shoes so I signed my name and took them home with me.

At that point I might have been willing to pay anything for shoes, so long as it got me home where I knew that I had pain killers and comfortable places to sit. Bridgette was more than happy to end our shopping trip too. She practically ran to the elevator and barely waited for me to get in before she had the doors shutting. Whenever the elevator stopped for someone on another floor, Bridgette would glare daggers into their backs and it was hard not to laugh at how ridiculous she was being.

"I was about ready to kill that last old couple. I swear, I have never seen people move that slowly," she muttered as I put my key into the door. I just laughed while swinging open the door and stepping into the penthouse. It was amazing how just after being there for a week I already considered the penthouse to be home. It certainly felt more like home than my house back in California did. There was no life in that house and everything was stiff and perfectly pressed. There was no room for mistakes, only the very best in perfection. Here in New York with my father, there was room for me to be silly and not care about how I looked or acted every second of the day.

"Let's get this party started!" Bridgette sang, skipping down the hall and towards my room. I followed her, but much slower because of the bags in my hand and the pain in my back.

"Just don't make it too loud. I don't want my neighbors calling the front desk," I told her from the bathroom.

_Painkillers_. Just seeing them made a smile form on my lips because they held in them the key to my problems, or at least the key to my back problems. I took two with a glass of water and stayed in the bathroom a moment longer to check my stitches in the mirror. Still no blood which was a good sign, but I probably needed to take it a little easier to make sure I didn't have to take another trip to the hospital.

I was on my way into my room when I heard Bridgette start up the music and couldn't help but laugh when I heard her start to belt out the words. Although I had planned to relax for at least a few minutes, Bridgette quickly forced me into singing and dancing with her. And soon she didn't even need to be forcing me. On my own I began to enjoy the music more and even decided to put on my new shoes and dance around in them which made Bridgette laugh and steal a pair of my heels and dance in them too.

The music was loud and it masked our terrible singing as we danced around and acted like the ridiculous high school girls we were just a couple of years ago. I was able to forget about the nightmare that had been my life just a day ago and all of my worries just slipped away. For a moment I was living in another world where it was just me and my best friend.

And then the door slammed open and we both screamed.

"Duncan! You dick-wad!" Bridgette yelled, holding her hand over her heart while she went over to the stereo and turned off the music. I was too frozen to even do that, stuck staring at Duncan instead for reasons I couldn't even explain.

_Why is it that every time I see him I think that it's the last time I'll ever see him? Why does that leave me hurting so badly? _

"Get out of my room, you brute!" I yelled, snapping out of my thoughts after Duncan had made some snide comment about our choice of music.

"Nice hooker heels," he said, waltzing into my room like a king and sitting himself down on my bed.

"They are no hooker heels!" I quickly retorted, glaring at him while at the same time panicking because I knew that later tonight when I tried to go to bed it would smell of him.

"Yeah, there's no way hookers can afford 300 dollar shoes," Bridgette said from behind me and I almost died while Duncan just laughed.

"How does daddy dearest feel about you blowing three hundred bucks on hooker heels?" He was so smug as he said that and I just glared at him before Bridgette started laughing too and I also shot her a look.

"I didn't use his money," I said, raising my chin straightening my posture.

"All the more for me to spend when I inherit it all from your dad," Duncan said and I raised my eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" I demanded and this just made Duncan grin.

"Well _Tom_ and I bonded real well today, so well in fact that I'm almost certain he's already thinking of places to book for our wedding."

_He's lying_. He had to be. There was no way in hell my father would ever do that to me. Just the thought made my eyes go wide before Bridgette started laughing and my nose wrinkled up. "I know you're lying," I said through gritted teeth. Making his way over to the door, Duncan said I could believe whatever I liked before adding in that it was time for dinner and leaving my room.

"I cannot believe he just did that. The _nerve_ he has!" I growled while taking off my heels. Bridgette just laughed and told me to lighten up a bit before we were both headed out towards the kitchen.

"It figures that Courtney would come out of her room for dinner, she always has loved food," my father teased when I entered the kitchen and I blushed before staring down at my feet. The last thing I wanted to do was make eye contact with Duncan, especially after this morning's incident with food.

"So what's for dinner Mr. C?" Bridgette asked, plopping down on a stool at the island. Dad mentioned something about ordering in Chinese and watching a movie which made Bridge and Duncan both very happy while I just sighed.

"You alright Princess?" my father asked me and I forced a sweet smile onto my lips.

"Of course Daddy, everything is fine," I assured him while he bought my lie, one look over at Duncan told me that he had not and that made my stomach knot painfully. The last thing I wanted was him forcing himself into my personal business especially since I barely even understood what was going on.

_Not to mention the fact that that person business has to do with him. _My subconscious pointed out and I shot a glare at the wall.

Bridgette and Duncan were busy fighting in the living room about what movie to watch while my father placed the order in the kitchen. With no one to notice me missing, I quietly left the kitchen and made my way to the hallway bathroom. My back was acting up again and although I knew it had not yet been four hours since I last took pain killers, I took two more.

For what felt like a few seconds I stood at the sink with my hands on either side of it while staring at the mirror. I just stared at my own reflection and picked apart all the parts of it I didn't like. I have too many freckles. My nose is too pointed. My ears don't have the same shape.

_There is no joy in my eyes. _I thought and that made my heart ache because it was true. Looking at myself, I saw that I looked miserable.

"But I can't let anyone else see me like this," I whispered before splashing my face with some water. When I removed the towel from my face, I made sure a smile was on it. For a few seconds I stared at my smile to make sure it looked as real as possible and when I was satisfied I left the bathroom.

I was on my way to the living room when there was a knock at the door. On my way to get it, I heard my dad say something about how quick that was and I caught a look at the clock in the kitchen and saw that I had been in the bathroom for 15 minutes.

_Hmm, that is fast_. But I didn't dwell on that and instead kept the smile on my face as I opened the door.

My smile dropped.

Standing at the door was not a friendly Chinese man there to deliver food, but instead two officers.

"Good evening Ms. Cliena. We have some questions to ask you about the other night," one of them told me. His voice was deep and it sent chills through my body. Too numb to say anything, I just stepped to the side to allow them entry.

_**00-00-00**_

Well I hope this is satisfactory for an update. I know it's been forever since I was active on this site, but I'm starting to get back into it. I did write 7 pages of this chapter in one day technically, so I think that's a pretty good start.

My next stories will be _Painted Woman _and _When the Dead Live_ so be on the look out for those. I realize that this was a bit of a filler chapter, but I'm working on the build up and I have ideas so hopefully writing won't be as difficult as it was like a year ago when I last updated.

I would love to hear some feedback, so please review.

_K_


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